


Stellar Travels: The Fantastic

by barryallenisravenclaw



Category: Fantastic Four (Comicverse), Marvel (Comics), She-Hulk, Spider-Man - All Media Types, Star Trek
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Space, Alternate Universe - Star Trek Fusion, Angst, F/M, Hurt/Comfort, Jennifer is an entire mess, M/M, Not Actually Unrequited Love, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, She Has Issues, Star Trek AU, Vulcan reed, adventures ensue, also Johnny and Peter are fighting at first, and they won't be together at the end of this one, basically they're a starship crew, but also like that one episode of next gen, but im halfway through a sequel so, cause they're idiots, gorn ben, half Vulcan peter, kind of a seven samurai deal, most others are humans, self indulgence at its finest, stay tuned, that's for jen, the ravagers show up, trill storms, with the ferengi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-24
Updated: 2020-12-24
Packaged: 2021-03-08 21:47:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 28,355
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27173345
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/barryallenisravenclaw/pseuds/barryallenisravenclaw
Summary: Sozoh Storrm, known to her friends as Sue, has been captain of the Fantastic for many years. Never in that time has her husband been kidnapped right in front of her eyes. Let Johnny fend for himself down on the planet for a while, Sue has business to take care of-----Johnny Storrm hates his stupid Vulcan roommate. Sometimes he really wished that his sister wasn't also his captain, then maybe she wouldn't arbitrarily give him assholes to live with. Still, this Parker guy was kind of cute when he was mad... What was Johnny saying?OR: a completely unnecessary Star Trek AU that, unlike my many other attempts, is actually finished. Updates Saturdays.
Relationships: Jennifer Walters/Wyatt Wingfoot, Johnny Storm & Susan Storm, Peter Parker/Johnny Storm (unrequited), Reed Richards/Susan Storm (Fantastic Four)
Kudos: 22





	1. Suzie and R'eyd

**Author's Note:**

> if you hate Star Trek, turn back now. This monstrosity is absolutely mired with references and lore of the Trek variety. Each alien species was carefully chosen to fit each beloved character according to my interpretations of each of them and it is made clear in my excitement. 
> 
> Seriously, what is wrong with me? Also, seriously, I've already started on the sequel so I can actually get Peter and Johnny together. Thanks for indulging me in my weird pet project!

Space; the final frontier. These are the voyages of the starship _Fantastic_. Its continuing mission: to boldly go where no one has gone before!

"Captain's log star date 84927. My husband has been interested in the Crab Nebula his entire life, but today we will finally be able to see it up close. He hasn't stopped talking about it all week. Based on intelligence reports, Starfleet believes that there is an intelligent race living in the clouds of the nebula. They do not seem to be tied to any specific planet or system, but are rather a nomadic species which is somehow able to survive in the vacuum and heat of the nebula. Johnny has taken to calling them "space whales", though in truth we have no idea what they may look like or if they even exist. Today, we hope to find out."

"Sue, have you finished recording that log yet? I wanted to ask you about the mission."

Sozoh Storrm sighed. "Yes, dear, just finished. What is it?" She had been listening to her husband yammer on about the biological necessities to exist, free floating, in the Crab Nebula ever since they received the assignment last week. She wasn't normally one to complain when her husband was happy, gushing about one of his favorite topics, but she had to admit that she was getting rather tired of hearing his hypotheses. Thankfully, they could all be tested soon.

She pushed her long, blonde hair behind her ear and checked herself in the mirror. She had to be sure that none of her foundation had covered up her spots before she went on the bridge. Perfect.

Turning toward her husband, she couldn't help but smile. People were rarely optimistic about interspecies relationships, but as soon as she met R’eyd all those years ago, she had known that they were meant to be together. She loved everything about her Vulcan and wouldn't dream to change a thing.

R’eyd had the decency to look mildly sheepish about his impatience. "I merely wished to ask when we will be arriving."

"Thirteen hundred hours," the captain replied, "so cool your jets. The nebula will still be there in five hours."

"I am fully aware of that, Sue, I simply-" Sue cut him off by grabbing his hand with her right and stroking his cheek with her left. R’eyd's eyes drifted shut as she stroked his first two fingers softly. "I... apologize, ashayam. I do not intend to pester, as you so like to put it."

"I know honey," his wife replied, "you're just excited."

"Vulcans do not-"

"Get excited, I know," she said, rolling her eyes as she turned away from her emotionally reserved spouse and towards the door. "Fortunately for the two of us, Trill do. I'll see you at lunch, dear heart!" She called the last over her shoulder as the doors slid open, leaving her flustered husband struggling to collect himself back in their quarters.

That moment when they met was almost two decades ago now, though they had only been married for three years. She still couldn’t believe that her first posting had been with the greatest Vulcan scientist of his generation. They had been two of only five people working at Starbase 17 at the time and therefore were able to get to know each other quite well. Sue wasn’t looking for a relationship at the time, especially with someone twice her age in earth terms, but after a few more years of correspondence, she had been smitten. Still, at that time R’eyd had been partnered with another Vulcan, T’Challa. It had been a mutually beneficial arrangement as it allowed the two of them to dispose of their physical needs when necessary while still leaving them options for finding a more fulfilling emotional relationship. T’Challa’s province had been the ones to invent the concept as an alternative to child betrothals and it had proved quite successful.

There still remained the uncomfortable situation of R’eyd having found a new mate, but T’Challa not, for many years. Four years ago, T’Challa met T’Nakia, and so when the time came the four of them were able to marry who they wanted and go about their cycles without each other’s assistance.

Sue disliked explaining why she and R’eyd took so long to marry as most did not understand how logical T’Challa’s approach was to dealing with their biological needs. Even to Sue, it sounded really weird to be fuck buddies with someone every seven years and somehow not develop an emotional attachment. Though, she supposed she wasn’t nearly as logically minded as her Vulcan husband. Sue still preferred the Trill ways, but it had worked out all right in the end.

She was a lucky woman, she was well aware. To have met R'eyd while they were still at the academy, to be pulled into his research like the positive to his negative. She hadn't been able to help herself. She would never forget the day he talked her into stealing that shuttlecraft that he and Johnny had built out at Utopia Planetia. It was a few years after they had met, and she already couldn’t help but do whatever he asked. She also loved remembering that trip because it had brought her closer to Ben.

He had been listening into their conversation through R’eyd’s bedroom door. The two men had been roommates at the time. Most other officers didn’t think a Vulcan and a Gorn could be happy roommates, but Sue’s boys had proved them wrong. Sue and Ben had gotten along all right before that night, but nothing made people closer than stealing their bosses’ property. After that day's flight successes, Starfleet couldn't have separated them if they'd tried. Obviously, try they hadn't. Sue shuddered to think what could have happened if R'eyd and Johnny's shuttle hadn't worked as planned.

Sue reached the bridge of her meager ship and smiled softly to herself. She may not have pictured herself as captain of a ship with a hundred and fifty-two person crew when she first started out, but she was damned if she was going to complain. To some, the _Fantastic_ was just a small Intrepid-class starship, but it held her family and that was all that mattered.

"Captain on the bridge," Ben announced cheerfully.

"Morning, everyone," Sue called out. She received a mixture of groans and light cheers as she relived Ben from his spot in the big chair. He groaned a bit, as always, as he removed his massive form from her slightly-too-small captain's chair. "Sounds as if we've had a bit of a rough evening."

"Nah, weren't nothin, Cap," Ben grumbled. "It was actually real boring. I'm groanin’ ‘cause I woulda liked a bit more pizazz on Gamma."

"Well, Alpha should prove interesting at least," Sue replied democratically. In her mind, a quiet shift was a good shift, but she knew Ben felt differently. She also preferred when the 'action' of their job didn't occur during Ben's shift as he occasionally reacted a bit... overzealously, to put it kindly. She also felt a bit sorry that he had to run a double shift today. "Are we still running on time?"

"Yes ma'am, arrival set for thirteen hundred," Commander Valtus replied, exiting the ready room just off of the bridge. "I was just finishing up some paperwork on that project you mentioned last week."

Ah, yes. Jen's project. "Excellent. You can brief the boys and I over lunch."

"Aye, Captain," Jen said with a smirk. She took her seat at the navigation station and winked at Ben's befuddled expression.

Jevnouvir tended to put people off when they first met her. This wasn't because of anything Jen did, but rather because of the other person's presumptions and biases. Sue knew for a fact that when Jen first met her now husband, poor Wyatt had been scared out of his wits. It was something to see, when someone expected Vulcan attitude but was suddenly faced with the full force of Jen's Orion half's personality. Not to mention the Klingon blood her cousin gave her after her accident. In sum, Jevnouvir's strong attitude was a perfect counterbalance to Sue's more politic presence.

"This plan wouldn't have anything to do with the Matchstick, would it?" Ben's universal translator grumbled, bringing Sue out of her thoughts.

Jen smiled wider and turned to stare at the viewscreen. Sue couldn't help but smile a little with her.

\-----

Sometimes, Johnny really enjoyed the privileges of rank. He got to delegate when he was feeling shitty and get his hands dirty when we felt like using some elbow grease. He had his own quarters, something even he hadn't garnered until Sue promoted him to Chief Engineer this year. (He also enjoyed his privileges as the captain's brother, but that was a list for a different rant.) Yes, it was true, the rank of Lieutenant Commander was nothing to be scoffed at. That is, until a certain other officer was also granted that rank.

"Can you imagine, a whole species of beings able to live and function in this environment? I'm aware that there have been reports of such beings in other sectors, but those haven't been substantiated. We could be the first research vessel to contact a species even remotely like them!"

Johnny rolled over to stare at the wall and was met with the surprisingly wide-eyed face of a Vulcan in uniform. He rolled back to his other side and pulled his pillow over his head.

It wasn't like his new roommate was anything to scoff at, in fact quite the contrary. When he wasn't talking, Johnny thought he looked rather nice; attractive, shockingly built, killer ass.

Well, as attractive as a huge nerd could be, anyway.

Sadly, whenever the little prick opened his mouth, he set Johnny's blood boiling.

"Do you mind shutting up? Some of us need more than four hours of sleep per night," Johnny grumbled.

He heard the Vulcan harrumph. "And some of us apparently oversleep. I thought you were interested in our new mission."

Johnny rolled his eyes. "I am interested, I just want to wait until my shift starts in order to be interested."

"Very well," the Vulcan replied smoothly. There, that was more like it. Now, if he could just get a few more minutes sleep, he'd be all set for Sue's inevitability crazy first contact. "In that case I shall attempt to converse with you again in fifteen minutes."

"Gee thanks, more talk," Johnny grumbled. Great Bird, were all Vulcans this--

Johnny sat up straight and stared at his roommate. "What did you just say?"

"Your shift begins in fifteen minutes." Johnny was going to wipe that smart ass smirk right off this asshole’s face.

Well, in about fifteen minutes he was. He couldn't exactly go down to engineering without a shower.

"You're dead, Vulcan," Johnny declared, sprinting into their shower.

As the door shut, he heard his roommate respond, "it's pronounced 'Parker', Trill. Vulcan is my given name."

After Alpha, Johnny was going to have some words with Sue about his room assignment.

\-----

After he finished getting ready, Johnny grabbed a bagel out of the replicator and just barely made it down to engineering before oh-eight-hundred. Thankfully for him, Parker had left while Johnny was in the shower.

Johnny shook out his shoulders and braved himself for the noise of main engineering. He knew he shouldn't have gone to the Social for the Social Sciences last night, but he just couldn't help himself. There was something about the prospect of seeing Crystal in her tight after-work dresses that he just couldn't pass up. And, as a possible side benefit, he had heard that some of his underlings had brewed a new batch of engine room hooch and he had been dying to get a taste. Naturally he didn't get anywhere with the partygoers, they all knew him too well by now. He'd fucked all the willing crew and now he was stuck with whatever random aliens they ran into. Them and whoever wanted seconds.

To put it concisely, Johnny still hadn't learned his lesson about Crys and no one, let alone her, was willing to give him the time of day anymore.

"Rough night, Commander?" Johnny scowled up at the second level's catwalk, hoping to hit Osborn with the full force of his loathing in one go.

Harry Osborn was a jerk, but that wasn't the only reason Johnny disliked him. His dad was an asshole weapons manufacturer with far too much sway in the Federation government for Johnny's liking. Also, and some might say this is the worse offense, he's always trying to steal Johnny's job! He only goes to the department parties to gather dirt on Johnny, he's sure, he just wished he could find some proof. It seems like the insubordination from his assistant engineer had gotten significantly worse since Johnny's new roommate moved in. He hoped there wasn't a connection.

"I could ask you the same thing. I'm sure Liz would find last night's activities interesting, maybe I should give her a call..." Johnny countered. He didn't see Osborn doing anything untoward, but Osborn didn't need to know that. Talking about Liz always shut the pointy bastard up.

Said pointy bastard scrunched up his pointy face in pointy anger as he dropped off the last rungs of the ladder. "You leave my wife out of this."

"Commander!" Johnny smirked at Osborn and turned toward the new voice. Saved by the underling.

"Pryde, how can I help you?" He greeted the ensign. "Those coolant conduits giving you trouble again, kid?"

Kitty rolled her eyes. "You're literally five years older than me."

"But I wear it so well," he declared, fluttering his eyelashes. She smiled and rolled her eyes. Osborn walked away grumbling about insubordination.

"Sir, I was told to deliver a message from the bridge. Lieutenant Wingfoot says you need to meet with the new chief science officer at 09:30 about his hypotheses." Johnny groaned, unable to help himself.

"Why? He wouldn't shut up about it this morning. It ruined my beauty rest! And anyway, why wasn't I told about this earlier?"

Kitty shrugged. "Wingfoot said Parker requested it when he arrived on the bridge. Said something about hoping you could be interested by then." She winked at the last. "That mean what I think it means, sir?"

Johnny shuddered. "The day you catch me canoodling with that Vulcan is the day I die, Ensign. Now get back to your station before the horror of that question really catches up with me."


	2. Peter isn't having fun

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Johnny Storrm is a self-serving dick. Peter and Sue are conspiring separately to knock him down a peg or two.

That meeting could not have gone worse.

Well, that was probably an exaggeration. Peter's quick mind could come up with thousands of ways that the meeting could have been more unsatisfactory. Still within a reasonable and conceivable realm of possibility, this was about as bad as it could have gone.

Johnny refused to pay attention to anything Peter had to say. He was literally on his tablet the entire time. He scowled at all of Peter's jokes. He groaned whenever Peter used a word above a tenth grade level, which was often. He stated multiple times that Peter was "the worst" when he was in the middle of a statement.

Still, the most frustrating part was easily the fact that this wasn't even supposed to be a real meeting! Peter didn't need to tell Johnny any of his theories on space-based life forms because _that wasn't Johnny's job_. Peter only wanted to hang out with the guy and have a good conversation. He was always avoiding Peter when they were both off the clock, citing dates and hangs and the like practically every time. Peter wasn't particularly interested in becoming friends with his roommate, but Aunt May had told him to at least give it the old college try.

So, there. He tried. He tried to be nice, to joke around, to find common interests, and still Johnny acted like an ass. Well, Peter was done with it. The next time he saw Johnny Storrm, he was going to act exactly like the emotionless asshole Johnny thought he was.

Peter’s bad mood followed him through the day. It didn’t even help that he was on the bridge because nothing interesting was happening yet. Nothing interesting could happen until they arrived at the Crab Nebula. Peter was mere seconds from resorting to messaging MJ during shift when something occurred to him. What if the reports of large life forms floating around in the nebula were just as farcical as they seemed? What if they weren’t life forms at all, but created to look as though they were alive in order to trick passers by? This required another pass at his notes.

\-----

"Alright, Parker, you have the bridge. Lunchtime, Jen, come with me. Wyatt, call my husband then come with us." All this waiting around was really starting to get to Sue. They only had an hour until they were to reach the edge of the nebula, and she could tell Jen was getting antsy. She needed a distraction.

"Aye, Captain," Wyatt responded dutifully. Sue was quite proud of the rapport she had with her crew. All of the senior staff were close to her in one way or another, making them feel like a true family. She wouldn't trade that for anything.

"Parker?" Jen asked, standing behind the science officer. "Are you going to acknowledge?" She poked him, and he jumped.

"Ah, yes ma'am, of course, ma'am, I'll get that done right away." He stood at stiff attention and stared somewhere around Sue's left ear.

She smiled inwardly while outwardly putting on her Captain's Face. "Lieutenant, did you not hear what I said?"

"No, ma'am, I did not," he replied stonily.

"And why not?"

His gaze shifted to look at the floor. "I was going over my notes on the nebula, ma'am, I'm sorry." He hadn't been, he'd really been monologuing in his head about what a jerk the captain's brother was. But she didn't need to know that, so he lied.

Sue let her smile show now. Vulcans. "All I said was that you have the bridge."

"Me?" The poor young man's eyes went surprisingly wide. "Um... I'm not sure-"

"Oh please," Sue cut him off. "You've got the highest rank here and I'm hungry. If you need anything, just call." He spluttered a bit and she turned toward the turbolift. She could hardly contain her snickers. "Come on, guys, time for some salad!"

Jen and Wyatt followed Sue onto the lift. They told it where to go and watched the doors shut, the last thing they saw on the bridge was Parker's panicked expression.

Jen burst out laughing. "Great Bird, what a kid..."

"I'm amazed the Academy didn't chew him up and spit him out," Wyatt added.

"Hey now," Sue said, her laughter abating for the moment. "He's a good guy. Besides, this practice will help his self esteem. He's going to need that around my brother."

"Are you really sure that's a good idea?" Wyatt asked as they stepped off the turbolift. "I mean, you know Johnny better than anyone but you didn't have to room with him in college like I did. He's gonna kill Parker before long, I can almost guarantee it."

Jen smirked. "Don't worry, baby, Suzie and I have a little plan for that."

They picked up their trays and walked over to the replicators on the wall. Each ordered their favorite nutrient-rich meals. Sue had a traditional type of Trill salad, Jen a bowl of plomeek soup that was just like mother used to make, and Wyatt had his grandfather's bean bread and potato soup.

Looking around the mess hall, Sue soon realized that Doctor R’eyd was nowhere to be found. She sighed and set down her tray at Jen's selected table.

Sue tapped her communicator. "Captain to ship's doctor, come in, doctor."

"Yes, dear?" Replied a disembodied voice.

"Don't make me come down and get you," she replied.

"Captain, there are only forty eight minutes until our arrival at the-"

"Exactly," she said, soundly ending his argument with her Captain Voice. "Only forty eight minutes to fit in lunch before all hell breaks loose."

There was a pause, then R’eyd replied, "you don't think it will go well."

Sue rolls her eyes. "With us, darling, something always goes sideways. Get down here and I'll get your soup for you. If you don't, Jen will eat it and we'll all be very cross. Captain out."

Jen snorted. "Classic R'eyd."

"When he gets here, we can fill him in," Sue replied, tucking into her food. "He won't listen anyway, you know how he is."

"Right," Jen snickered. "So about your plan-"

"Plan?" Wyatt asked, accidentally spitting a bit of potato soup on his wife. "This is the first I've heard of it."

Jen gave him a patronizing look as he hastily cleaned the potato off her cheek. "I know that, dear, that's why I'm filling you in now." She followed the statement with one of her patented winning smiles, making Wyatt melt on the spot. Sometimes, it would seem, being half Orion had its privileges. Usually those privileges involved shutting up people who were attracted to women.

Sue smirked behind her fork. "Updates, Commander?"

"Are plenty," Jen smirked back. "Ensign Pryde reported to me this morning that Johnny and Parker were in a meeting for an hour about the nebula. It would seem that Parker's request for a meeting involved some innuendo. When Pryde pointed this out to your brother, he apparently 'blushed up to his ears'. The ensign's words, not mine."

"Excellent." Sue said. "Any word on Parker's possible opinions of his new roommate?"

"Negative, though Pryde did say that Lieutenant Osborn was a little grumpier than usual since Parker's promotion."

"Osborn?" Sue inquired. She knew he was Johnny's second down in engineering, the Great Bird knew he complained enough about the human, but didn't know why his mood would have anything to do with Parker.

"Parker's academy roommate, ma'am," Jen supplied. "They remain close and Osborn is reported to be quite protective of his friend."

"Interesting..." Sue muttered, glaring into her salad. "Is there a concern he could get in the way?"

"Negative again." Well, that was a relief. She had enough of Johnny's exes to worry about without involving some of Parker's.

"Wait just a minute here," Wyatt cut in, having thoroughly demolished his lunch and therefore now ready to converse. "You're not trying to set them up, are you? Johnny? And a Vulcan? They'll kill each other!"

"Who's killing who?" R'eyd cut in, taking his place next to his wife and across from Jen.

"Johnny and the new science chief!"

"Darling, would you mind keeping your voice down?" Jevnouvir asked quickly. "We wouldn't want to attract more attention to Johnny than he already receives."

"Ah," R'eyd said, sipping his tea. "The plan to get Johnny into a more stable relationship."

Sue stared at him in shock. "How... what? You knew what I was planning and you didn't say anything?"

R'eyd cocked an eyebrow. "You are always telling me to keep any 'unhelpful' opinions to myself. I was merely adhering to your wishes."

"Just for that you're getting your own damn soup," Sue muttered.

"Bridge to Captain Storrm," came the voice of Lieutenant Commander Parker.

Sue tapped her communicator. "Yes, Parker, what is it?"

"Um, well, you're gonna wanna see this," was the reply. Sue frowned. They weren't due to arrive at the nebula's edge for another twenty minutes.

"Is there anything wrong?"

"It's-- we're picking up some anomalous readings, ma'am. I'm not sure, but I think the signals received by Starfleet may have an alternative origin." Sue's frown deepened, as did her husband's mental sense of concern. There was a reason Parker was being so vague.

"We'll be right there, Captain out." Sue stood from their table and was wordlessly followed by all three of her lunchtime companions. Soup would have to wait.

\-----

"Parker, status report." Sue marched right up to her chair and took a seat, putting on what Johnny termed her "business face". R'eyd took a seat in Crystal's usual chair next to Sue. Parker, surprisingly, didn't look nervous at all.

"Lieutenant Stacy was the first to see the readings, ma'am." Parker gestured towards his science station. He had been sitting in the captain's chair while he'd had the conn and was still standing close by to give his report. "When she notified me, I verified them and contacted you immediately."

"What sort of readings were they?" R'eyd asked.

"There appeared to be a signal originating from somewhere off the starboard bow. We altered course slightly, as it was about two degrees off, and found that the signal's origin was no longer in that place. It appeared to be closer and off the port bow. As we came closer to the nebula, which you will see we have just entered, Stacy realized that the signal appeared to contain photons--"

"Captain," Jen exclaimed, cutting the science officer off. "Asteroid straight ahead."

"Evasive action! Put it onscreen." Sue ordered.

"Can't, Captain, it's too close."

"Ready phasers and fire."

"Aye, Captain," Wyatt responded. He fired, and the asteroid exploded quite soundly. Automatically, the shields came up when Wyatt fired. This was fortunate as some of the debris was quite large and would have damaged the hull significantly.

"Captain, I'm picking up unusual contents in the debris," Parker stated, having rushed back to his station in the emergency. "There appear to be a significant amount of conductor metals and steel, much more than could conceivably occur naturally."

"Fascinating," R'eyd muttered.

"Any idea what it might be, gentlemen?" Sue asked.

"It could be parts of an artificial satellite," R'eyd supplied.

"But we'd need to take a closer look to be sure," Parker finished.

Sue turned back to her first officer decisively. "Commander, set a tractor beam on as much of that debris as possible and bring it into cargo bay two. R'eyd, Parker, you get down there and get to work. I need to know if we just destroyed something vitally important."

"Aye, Captain," chorused her crew.

"Full impulse through the nebula, Ben." Sue sighed and sank back in her chair. "Let's see what we can find out up here." This was already one hell of a day, and they hadn't even had first contact yet. She shuddered to think what more could go wrong before the end of this particular adventure.


	3. Oops

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> First contact does not go as planned.

"I regret to inform you, Captain, that young Parker and I were indeed correct in our assumptions." R'eyd was standing in front of the table in the conference room giving his report. Sue was sitting at the opposite end of the table, longways, flanked by Valtus and Wingfoot. Next to each of them were Crystal and Johnny, and sitting down next to R'eyd was Parker.

"What did you find, Doctor?" R'eyd enjoyed it when he and Sue used their titles when they were on duty. He said it helped establish a difference for the crew. Sue argued that it was difficult to uphold with the rest of the crew, their close personal friends, but liked to indulge him regardless.

"Among the expected various stone elements of the asteroid itself, we discovered a significant amount of precious, conductive metals. Using advanced reasoning, Parker and I determined that the metals were originally a holographic transmitter, likely installed by a humanoid race of similar size and dexterity to our peoples."

"What the hell is a hologram generator doing on an asteroid in the middle of nowhere?" Jen blurted. It was more than a fair question.

"That's the other issue," Parker started. "We are reasonably certain that this generator was not the only one. The signals Stacey picked up were coming from multiple sources. At first we thought there was a malfunction, but I now believe that there are holographic generators spread throughout the nebula on such mobile objects as asteroids."

"Why would anyone do that?" Crystal asked.

In response, R'eyd pulled a small pad out of his pocket and clicked a button on the side of it. There were a few gasps as a large, whale-like creature appeared over the pad. It rotated slowly, as all paused holograms do, so Sue let herself have a moment to be shocked.

"That's the creature described in the reports," Jen stated. She was right. Starfleet's orders to investigate the Crab Nebula came with the original reports. These contained multiple accounts of whale-like creatures which roamed the gas clouds with an unknown purpose.

"Why would someone do this..." Sue puzzled, echoing the ship's counselor. "Let's search around and find out." Sue stood, and so did everyone else. "Back to your stations. Parker, start searching for M Class planets."

"Captain," Johnny started, maneuvering himself so he could keep his sister in the conference room while letting the rest of the senior staff out. "I'd like to talk to you about something, if I may."

"Johnny, please," Sue said, deflating from captain into sister. "I'm very busy, can't it wait?"

"It'll only take a second, I swear." Sue is pretty sure she saw Parker rolls his eyes at that. He was the last to leave, therefore now the siblings were alone.

"What is it, Johnny?" Please don't be about Parker.

"It's about Parker." Dammit. "He's a total lame-o! Why did you have to room me with such a geekazoid?"

"You and your old timey slang." Sue shook her head. "Look, I'm not changing the rooms around just so you can get your rocks off ("Hey!"). You're just going to have to deal with it."

“But sis-“

“Johnny, enough!” Sue exclaimed. He shrank back, and she softened a fraction. “I’m sure your living situation is a high priority for you right now, but I have other things to worry about. I think we may have stumbled onto something big here, and I’m going to need every member of my crew as focused as possible on the mission at hand. We can discuss your problems when the mission is over.”

Johnny glared but slumped in recognition of his defeat. “Aye, Captain.”

Sue grabbed her brother’s shoulder and offered him a small smile. She hoped it would be enough to tide him over. Then, she left the conference room and took her seat again in the big chair.

——

“Captain, I think we’ve found a possible candidate for our new alien friends,” Peter stated. 

“What did you find?” Captain Storrm replied. Peter couldn’t help but be intimidated by her stance as she approached his station. She was scary when she was focused.

“There appears to be a planet around this star, classification gamma-67350,” Peter began. “As you know, we wouldn’t normally find a fully fledged star inside a nebula, but I believe something about the size and composition of Crab has allowed his to occur. More to the point, I am picking up faint life form indicators from the planet surface. It is still difficult to tell at this distance, but I believe they may be who we’re looking for.”

“Helm,” Storrm said, marching back to her chair, “alter course for Peter’s star and increase speed.” 

It wasn’t long before they reached the star they were looking for, nor the third planet circling it. They entered a high orbit and from there Peter’s scans revealed a highly evolved civilization, roughly equivalent to the technological status of the Federation. The captain decided to contact the planet and see if they received a response, if only to find out why someone would bother setting up the machinery that they had.

“Receiving response from a city at the equator, Captain,” Wyatt informed the bridge.

“On screen.”

The being on the viewer looked something like how Peter imagined the old conspiracy theory lizard people would look. They were less like a Gorn and more like a humanoid. Less like a dinosaur and more like the way dinosaurs are portrayed in old earth cartoons. Peter wanted desperately to take a look at their DNA.

“Greetings, offworlders. We respond to your message of peace favorably.” The being’s face didn’t change much as it spoke, and the words came out with a reptilian hiss. It was absolutely fascinating. Peter had innumerable questions. “I am Mart Con, President of the country of (here they performed a series of hisses which Peter was sure no other humanoids could replicate) on planet Ka. What is your business here and how did you find us?”

“Greetings, President,” the Captain replied in her most diplomatic voice. “As stated in our original message, we are explorers from the United Federation of Planets. We stumbled across an artificial satellite when we first entered this nebula a short time ago with regrettable circumstances. We were going too fast and unable to avoid it, therefore having to destroy it in order to protect ourselves. We humbly-“

“You what?” The president exclaimed. “You have no idea what you’ve done! Our planet has almost no defenses, the Ravagers will be here in no time! You have doomed us all!”

“Our ship has weapons,” Storrm said in her most reassuring tone. “To repay you for the damage we caused, we can fend off these ravagers for you. When they are gone, we can discuss if we have repaid you enough. We also have very capable scientists onboard if you would like their assistance in rebuilding your destroyed property.”

The president appeared to consider her offer, then make her decision. “I must present this to the planet council. I will report in your favor, but I must warn you that I can make no promises. I am a fair and just woman, but the same cannot be said for some of the other rulers on Ka. Some may rather wish to have your ship offered up to the Ravagers for destruction. Still, I will try my best.”

Storrm offered a slight smile. “We are in your debt, Madam President.”

President Con tilted her head in an honorary gesture, then cut off communication. Storrm’s smile immediately fell into a scowl.

“I want options on a best case scenario while we wait. Prepare as best you can to protect the planet, repair their systems, and consider what other assistance they may want. I’ll be in my office.” She stormed off the bridge.

Commander Valtus took her seat in the captain’s chair and her replacement was called to the bridge. She sighed. “You heard her, folks, let’s try to make those rude bastards happy."

——-

The best options the senior staff were able to come up with were doing exactly what the people of Ka wanted. Peter was sort of disappointed with himself at this as he was usually known for coming up with unusual solutions. He was feeling slightly giddy at the prospect of putting together one of the holographic generators himself. As far as Peter could tell from the debris, it was a highly sophisticated piece of machinery. Their generators might even be better than those on the holodecks, though it was hard to tell considering how different the circuitry seemed to be.

Not even the possibility of working with Storrm was enough to dampen Peter’s mood. Besides, there was always a chance of working with the ship’s doctor on an engineering away mission. R'eyd was quite learned in almost every area of science. It wasn’t likely that he would work on this particular project, but that little bit of hope kept Peter happy while they awaited the Ka response to their offer.

Finally, after two full hours in orbit and nothing to show for it, they received a hail

“Captain to the bridge, we are receiving hail,” Wingfoot told the computer. The captain and first officer had been in her office for at least half an hour, since the senior staff options meeting ended, discussing their own ideas about what was suggested as well as, Peter assumed, alternatives. Wingfoot had been left in charge of the bridge even though Peter held a higher rank. The captain said this was because Peter had other things to worry about at the moment.

She and Commander Valtus appeared on the bridge and immediately called for the message to be displayed on the main viewer. President Con’s face appeared, though it was difficult for Peter to tell what she was feeling with the distinct lack of emotional expression.

“Madam President,” Sue greeted. “I trust this means your council has come to a decision?”

“It has,” Con answered. “With a solid majority, we have decided to accept your protection and your help in rebuilding our machinery.” Captain Storrm visibly relaxed and Peter thought he heard the commander sigh in relief. 

“Excellent news, Madam President,” Storrm replied. “How soon would you like our scientists to arrive and where should we send them?”

“I will message you arrival coordinates in my country’s capital now. You are welcome to come down as soon as you are ready.”

“Thank you, President Con,” Storrm said with a slight bow. Peter was willing to bet she was as teed off about showing respect to these weirdos as he would have been. Peter couldn’t imagine feeling good about having to thank someone for letting him help them. The nerve.

The transmission ended and Storrm began giving out orders. “Jevnouvir, you’re in charge while I’m planetside. I’ll return just as soon as I’m done doling out pleasantries. Wyatt, call Johnny and tell him to meet us in transporter room one. Parker, you’re coming with me.”

A chorus of “yes ma’am” was heard as Storrm Storrmed off the bridge, Peter sprinting after her in order to make it to the turbo lift before the doors closed. When they did, the captain’s shoulders slumped.

“I’m planning on reminding Johnny before we beam down,” she started, “but please keep an eye on him while you’re down there. Normally I’d send R'eyd, but seeing as we’re going into battle…”

Peter stood silently. He knew the Fantastic didn’t have to fight often and when they did, the captain couldn’t help but worry. Theirs was a mission of peace, she always hated introducing new life forms to the Federation by shooting at them.

“You’re a good kid, Parker,” Sue said finally.

Peter offered her a slight smile in return. “Thank you, Captain. I promise I’ll keep your brother safe.” “Oh that’s not the problem,” She said. The turbo lift doors opened and they started walking down the hall. “I’m just trying to make sure no one ends up pregnant.”

Peter choked down a laugh and came to parade rest behind his captain in the transporter room.

“Mister Th'draaq,” the captain greeted the transporter chief, “have you received the coordinates?”

“Yes, ma’am, now we’re just waiting on Johnny,” he replied. Bobby winked at Peter. “Good luck babysitting, Pete.” Peter snorted lightly before he could stop himself.

“Oh, please, he’s lucky to be going somewhere with me,” Johnny said, waltzing into the room. “If anything, you should be wishing me luck having to hang around with this nerd alert the whole mission.”

Bobby and Peter rolled their eyes. While Sue yelled at her brother, giving details of what incidents from other away missions he was ordered not to repeat, Bobby got two tricorders and a tool box out of the equipment lockers and handed them to Peter. He winked at Peter, making him laugh lightly again. This was sure to be an adventure.

When Sue was finished, the three of them took their places on the transporter pad. Storrm gave the order, and they were off.


	4. Helloooooooo alien race!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A tense moment onboard and a relaxing tour on Ka

The away team rematerialized on the planet surface, and what they saw took Sue’s breath away. They were in the middle of a large, open hall that appeared to have animals nesting close to the ceiling. None of the dozens of two meter tall windows had glass in them, they were all completely open. Doorways cut into the adobe walls were easily four meters in height and were set about every six meters. The sheer size of the hall was nearly incomprehensible. It had been a while since Sue had gone on an away mission, or even a planetside shore leave, and she couldn’t help but smile as she drank in the scenery and fresh air.

“Greetings, Captain Storrm,” one of the Ka in front of them said. “I am Bill, I am the president’s secretary of interplanetary affairs. I will lead you to her.” Sue blinked. Bill. She had never heard such a human name on such a different planet.

“It is an honor to meet such honest and trustworthy beings as yourselves,” one of the other Ka added.

“I must say the same,” Sue said, bowing her head slightly. “I cannot wait to meet President Con in person.”

“This way,” said Bill. They led Sue and her crew to the other end of the hall and through a closed passageway. At the end of it was the president’s office, locked behind a Medieval-style doublewide door. Sue was already having trouble connecting their clearly advanced technology with their older architecture.

The office itself was about seven by seven meters and held nothing but a desk, four chairs, and many bookcases full of what appeared to be old, handwritten tomes. Sue wanted to get a closer look, but President Con was already standing to greet them. She bowed her head and Sue did the same.

“Please, sit,” Con offered, gesturing to the three chairs across from her at her desk. Turning to their escorts, she said, “Please go fetch my husband for me.” The three of them scampered off back down the hall they had come from. Sue took the seat in the middle, Johnny on her left and Parker on her right. She did her best to look stately, and judging by the lack of side eye from her brother, she was pulling it off nicely.

“Thank you for having us, Madam President,” Sue started. “We are grateful that you have allowed us opportunity to right our wrong and protect your people.”

Con shook her head. “It is I who should be grateful for your assistance. The other members of the planet council did indeed take some convincing, but I was eventually able to express to them that you truly mean no harm.” Sue smiled. “Now, down to business.”

“Ah, yes,” Sue cut in. “This is my chief engineer and brother, Lieutenant Commander Storrm, and this is my chief science officer Lieutenant Commander Parker. Parker is more familiar with your systems as he examined the debris of the satellite we destroyed, but my brother is better at mechanical systems. They should be sufficient to assist your people in their efforts, but I am more than happy to send down more officers to assist if necessary.”

“On the contrary,” Con said, “It is my people who will be assisting yours. As I’m sure you have noticed, my people are not very technologically advanced. The satellite you found is a remnant of our past, a previous culture from our planet created these protective measures and wrote down the instructions on tomb walls, but some of those instructions have been lost. In the past few years, various of our satellites have been destroyed or simply ceased to function, resulting in our being attacked by the Ravager ships. They are horrible pirates who will stop at nothing to find us and steal our valuable resources. My husband was able to create a somewhat functional version of the satellites, but it has proven not enough to truly stop the tide of violence and pillaging. We will be forever in your debt if you can find a way to hide our planet from the galaxy again.”

Sue sat quietly as the president spoke, ruminating over what she had just said. This placed her in quite the predicament. These people were not, as they had assumed, at the same or higher level of technological advancement as the Federation. Rather, they were much lower and therefore the Prime Directive applied in full force. On one hand, Sue was obligated in her position as a Starlet officer to uphold the Prime Directive at all costs. On the other, she had made a promise to protect these people to the best of her ability. If she backed out now, she was placing herself and her crew directly responsible for whatever heinous acts the Ravagers took out on Ka.

She came to a decision and managed to place a smile back on her face. “We will try our best, Madam President. You have my word.” She felt Johnny and Parker both shoot her a glance but elected to ignore it. Part of the Prime Directive stated that once you were involved, you kind of had to stay involved, and that’s exactly what Sue intended to do.

She stood, and so did her officers. The president mirrored her. “Now that that matter is settled,” she said as kindly as possible, “I’m afraid I must return to my ship. When the Ravagers arrive, they will need me back in command. I hope I do not offend you.”

Con bowed her head slightly. “Of course not. May the power of all the gods help you in your quest.”

“Thank you,” Sue replied. She grabbed Johnny’s shoulder once and shot him a warning glance before tapping her comm badge and asking to be beamed back up. She may not believe in a god herself, but after the justification she just had to pull out of her ass, she hoped that if there was one, They would help her out like Con had asked.

She rematerialized on the transporter pad and acknowledged Th'draaq on her way out. She needed to get back up to the bridge. She trusted Jen and Wyatt to protect her ship, but this crew hadn’t had a battle drill in at least a month. They’d need her confidence if they were going to get out of this. With almost no information about the Ravagers or their capabilities, the _Fantastic_ was essentially flying blind.

Sue arrived on the bridge and took her seat back from Jen. “Status update.”

“Nothing yet, Captain,” Jen replied. She tapped a few commands on her navigation console then turned back around to give Sue a more complete update. “We’ve been monitoring the surrounding space for any signs of other ships and haven’t seen anything. We’re paying closer attention to the area of space from which we came, as that should be where Ka’s defense grid is weakest, but there’s still nothing.”

“Continue scanning,” Sue ordered, perhaps unnecessarily. “Maintain a yellow alert status for readiness.” They could do this. They were ready.

Sue quickly updated the bridge crew on what she had learned from President Con. Not five minutes later, a ship dropped out of warp right in front of them. It stayed out of orbit, so they didn’t need to take any evasive action, but it still surprised the whole bridge crew.

“Sorry, Cap,” Jen said, “I got no indication of him on the sensors.”

“The new ship is hailing us, ma’am,” Wingfoot said.

“On screen.”

The captain of the other ship was of a species which the Federation had never encountered. His skin and mustache were blue, his teeth silver, and his technological implant resembled a glowing red mohawk. He and his crew all wore similar red pleather uniforms. He was grinning in his seat in the center of the screen.

“Well look here, boys,” he said instead of offering a greeting. “Looks like we got ourselves some competition on this here planet.” A chorus of laughter was heard from behind him.

“I am Captain Storrm of the United Federation of Planets,” Sue stated clearly and confidently. “This planet is under our protection. You will not harm them.”

The Ravager captain whistled sarcastically. “Well now, aren’t you a feisty one? You seem to bee confused there, this here is our planet. We have a sort of arrangement with the residents, see? They give us their platinum, and we leave. It’s what I like to call mutually beneficial. You wouldn’t want to get yourself into the middle of a mutually beneficial arrangement, would you?”

“I would not,” Sue allowed, “Though after talking to the residents, this would not seem to fit that description. Kindly leave or we will be forced to take action against you.”

The ravager captain laughed and suddenly cut off his transmission.

“They’re readying weapons, Captain,” Wyatt informed her.

“Red alert, shields—“ She was cut off by the distinct feeling of getting hit by two torpedoes.

“Shields at eighty percent,” Wyatt reported. Sue breathed a sigh of relief. He’d gotten them up in time. “No other damage reported.”

“They’re flying away, Captain.” Sue sat back in her chair. Whatever, maybe they’d leave the planet alone now. “They appear to have beamed up a significant amount of metal right after shooting at us,” Jen continued.

Sue nearly cursed. “After them! Pursuit course, quick enough to catch up, Ben!” She ordered. No one stole from someone under Sue Storrm’s protection. “Tell Johnny we’ll be right back.”

——

“Ah, there you are, husband,” Con greeted the lizard dude who had just walked in. Johnny and the Vulcan had been sitting in this lady’s office for like ten minutes trying to make small talk while they waited for her hubby to show up. The small talk wasn’t going well. All her questions were stuff like “where are you from” and “if I might inquire of you” and stuff like that. It was obnoxiously boring. Johnny was close to just leaving the room when the guy finally showed up.

“My apologies, dearest, I was down at the university,” said the husband. He approached her and they did this weird thing where they poked their noses together. Johnny couldn’t figure these people out.

“It is of no concern,” Con replied. Then, to Johnny and Parker, she said, “gentlemen, this is my husband and secretary of all sciences in the country, Dr Curt Con.”

“Lovely to meet you,” Johnny said quickly. “Who’s ready to get to work? I know I am, where’s your lab?”

“You’ll have to excuse him,” Parker cut in. Johnny scowled at him, but he didn’t turn in time to notice. “He’s just excited to see your facilities. We are honored to meet you, Dr Con.” Johnny rolled his eyes. Who the hell was the Vulcan trying to impress? Sue was gone, he didn’t need to use all that flowery bullshit.

“I must say the same to you, sir,” Dr Con said, bowing his head. Great Bird, was everyone so polite all the time on this damn planet? “Excitement for knowledge is always an admirable quality.”

Johnny sort of tuned them out as Parker talked to the Cons about their facilities and stuff. It wasn’t that he was bored or uninterested, he was just sore from his conversation with Sue before they beamed down. He was already grumpy when they told him over the comms that Parker was going on this mission, and Sue had just made it so much worse. Every time she sent him on an away mission, she felt the need to yell at him beforehand about being careful and not causing any trouble. He hasn’t had any issues on an away mission in two years, and even the last one was because the senator was flirting with him! Johnny didn’t really want the guy’s attention, and he would have wanted it even less if he’d known he was married! Johnny just hated being treated like a kid all the time. He was twenty eight years old, he could make his own decisions without his sister getting involved.

He was less mad about it when she sent R'eyd along, cause sometimes R'eyd was cool. Not that Johnny had ever told him that, of course. But really? Parker was in charge here? He’d only been a Commander for a week, where Johnny had held the rank for three months! He clearly had seniority here, and still Sue trusted some kid more than she trusted her own brother. Johnny was gonna make her regret embarrassing him like this.

“ _Fantastic_ to Storrm.” He received a beep on his communicator and picked up. “Leaving orbit to chase pirates. Will return soon.”

“Just great,” grumbled Johnny. “Hey, Parker, we might be here a while. Wyatt said they just left.”

“Excellent,” Dr Con said. “This means you have plenty of time to look at my other research.”

“Your captain is a woman of her word,” the president added.

Johnny barely stopped himself from rolling his eyes. Parker’s brow wrinkled slightly in concern. He understood what that meant, Sue leaving some of her crew alone on a planet with no way off. Something big was going on up there.

The president received a call on her emergency line, and her husband took this as his opportunity to take Parker and Johnny down to their labs. Johnny was overjoyed. The sooner they got this done, the sooner he could get away from Parker.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this update is so late! I had a COVID scare this weekend and forgot to post. I promise I'll have one up Saturday as usual!


	5. There they go...

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> a kidnapping occurs and Johnny acts like a dick

"The Ravagers appear to be slowing down, Captain."

"Maintain present speed until we reach their position, then drop to standard following distance and maintain," Sue replied swiftly.

"Aye, ma'am," Ben replied. They ought to be able to catch them now. It was much easier to arrest someone for raiding a peaceful planet if they were sitting still.

"Sozoh, wait!" She whipped her head around to see who had just stormed onto the bridge, and was mightily surprised to see her husband. "You can't stop, they'll--"

"We're being hailed by the Ravagers, Captain," Lt Wingfoot cut in.

"On screen," Sue turned away from the doctor and refocused her attention on the immediate threat. "This is Captain Sozoh Storrm of the--"

"I don't know what y'all were thinkin," the Ravager said, cutting her off. "I know them aliens got some good stuff, but we can more'n defend our planet against the likes of you."

Sue screwed up her nose. "Listen to me and listen closely. That is not your planet." Sue felt the familiar tug of her husband's mind against hers. She tried to shove back and say 'not now'. "You will leave this system and never return." The same tug, more insistent this time. "If you do-" this one was more of a lurch.

She whipped around to face her husband, fuming. "R'eyd, I swear to the Great Bird--"

"Pardon me, Captain, but there is something you must know before negotiations continue," he replied, cutting her off smoothly. She could feel his urgency in her mind.

"R'eyd, I'm not negotiating, I'm setting terms for their surrender. We out gun them, not to mention-"

"Ah, but you see, you don't," R'eyd said at the same time as the Ravager captain.

"Looks like you got yourself a smart young man there, Captain Sozoh," the Ravager continued.

"It's Captain Storrm," she replied quickly.

"Sozoh, please, he has a deadly weapon. It's unlike anything we've seen before, you must--" R'eyd was cut off both by the obnoxious laughter of the Ravager and by Wyatt tumbling into him.

"Doctor, I must insist that you--"

"Aw, hell with it," the Ravager cut Wyatt off. "Take the doc!"

Before Sue could even scream "no," Wyatt and R'eyd had disappeared from the bridge. The other ship cut off contact and fled at seemingly full speed.

"Follow them!" Sue declared.

"Aye!" Jen said quickly. They were both in battle mode, now, and when the two of them were on a warpath, nothing could stand in their way. No one had ever taken their husbands and gotten away with it, and they weren't about to allow it now.

Ben hit the gas and the Fantastic took off after the pirates. He and Jen had always worked well together, but they put all their previous work to shame when they took off after the other ship. They performed maneuvers Sue had never seen before as the ship took them around protostars and through a particularly thick portion of dust cloud.

"Full power to the sensors!" Sue declared. They could not afford to lose that ship. Without R'eyd, Sue didn't know what she'd do.

She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She needed to know he was ok. Thinking back to R'eyd's careful teaching, she reached out to the part of her mind that felt different, felt like him. She imagined the golden tether of their bond and tapped twice. After a few moments, she heard his voice in her head.

"We are alright, ashayam. They have placed us in a cell. Now, I must warn you, their weapon is terribly dangerous. It can-"

Sue recoiled like she's been punched in the face and opened her eyes to see Ben stomping on the floor.

"What happened? How did we lose them?"

"The cloud was too thick, Captain," Jen said hollowly. "They got ahead of us and they were just... gone..."

It was at that moment that Sue felt something she hadn't felt since the day of her bonding.

She felt alone.

"Get someone up here to replace Wingfoot and call sickbay. Tell the night nurse she's now on call." Sue barked. "I want someone scanning for those bastards constantly. Valtus, call Crystal and get her up here. I want both of you in my ready room in five minutes."

"Aye, Captain." Jen stood, her rage barely contained, and hailed Crystal.

Sue advanced into the ready room, expressionless. "Ben, you have the con."

She couldn't hear the acknowledgments. She couldn't hear anything. She had lost R'eyd. He was somewhere, too far away for her to feel him. She hadn't noticed, hadn't thought about--

There was a hum that their bond made, a low and distant hum in her mind. She couldn't hear it, couldn't--

Sue sat down heavily at her desk and took a deep breath. She cleared her mind as best she could, searching for that hum, for anything, any indication that R'eyd was in there and could send her some form of thought.

There was nothing. She was alone.

"Captain, Jen briefed me," Crystal said as she and Jen walked into the room. They waited for the doors to close and took their seats before they continued. "Are you alright? How can I help?"

Sue shuddered. "Two of my officers have been kidnapped by a hostile force. All attempts to contact them or their captors have failed. I need the two of you to find anything you can about the Ravagers in the ship's computers, anything to help us find them. I will remain on the bridge monitoring the scanners. Use any and all personnel you require to complete this task. Questions?"

The two women stared at their captain, agape.

"Excellent. Dismissed." Sue stood and crossed to her replicator. "Tea, chamomile, style S."

Her officers continued to stare as Sue's tea appeared. They said nothing as she returned to her desk. Only when she lifted the mug to drink did they speak.

"Are you fucking serious right now?" Jen exclaimed, the force of it causing her to stand and pace the room. "Our husbands are taken before our eyes and you send me away without any questions? Sue, are you high?"

"I think what Jen means is--"

"I just said what I mean!" She continued, cutting Crystal off. "I'm all for getting shit done quick, you know how I am about efficiency, but Great Bird! We're not even going to stop and talk about this? No 'how do you feel, Jen?' 'Oh, alright, Sue, only my heart has been ripped out of my chest and taken by pirates, how are you doing?' Are you shitting me? Captain Feelings of the Emotions Express doesn't have anything to say?"

Sue sipped her tea and closed her eyes. She needed to be strong. She had to be, for them.

"What?" Jen added. "Not gonna say anything? We're just dismissed?"

"Jevnouvir." Sue opened her eyes to find Jen fuming and Crystal near tears in sympathy. "You said your heart was ripped out. For me, it was part of my soul." Sue took a deep breath. "Now go get them back."

"You really are shitting me," Jen answered, quietly this time almost as if she were in shock. "I'm Vulcan, too, Sue. I could feel the damn tether break just as well as you did. When is this over and we've got our boys back, you and I are gonna have words, you hear me? I don't care how superior an officer you are, you know me too well to talk to me like that."

Valtus and Crystal turned heel and left, no more questions, and Sue nearly cried. Still, she held on. She had to, had to be strong in front of her crew. There would be time for tears when she found R'eyd. Now was the time to get back in her captain chair and get her husband back.

——

“So you’re saying that your ancestors were able to figure out a way to create warp drive before they even invented agriculture?” Parker had been talking to Dr Con since the exact moment they met and apparently still wasn’t tired.

“That’s exactly what I’m saying,” the doctor replied.

“That’s…” Parker spluttered. “That calls into question everything Federation anthropologists have ever considered fact! This is amazing! Dr Con, with permission from my captain and your government, I’d like to work together on publishing a research comparison between Ka’s ancient peoples and those of the Federation worlds. I think it could revolutionize the entire—“

“Socket wrench, Web Head,” Johnny cut in. He was all for exploration, but maybe Parker could wait to do this until after they had put together this stupid machine thing. Apparently that was too much to ask.

Parker sighed but handed him the tool he needed anyway. “You know, that nickname doesn’t even make sense. No aspect of my personage or my heritage has any connection to webs.”

“Sure it does, Web Wit,” Johnny replied, not even looking at his roommate as they argued. “Your brain is basically a library, Libraries are dusty and full of cobwebs, ergo, your brain is made of cobwebs.” Johnny could almost feel him rolling his eyes.

As Parker returned to his conversation with the good doctor, Johnny wondered at what the two of them had seen and done so far on Ka. The laboratory they were currently working in was quite a ways away from the president’s office, so they got a strange sort of city tour as they made their way over. Strange because of its inordinate focus on the scientific buildings, museums, and libraries in the capital. (The city’s name, like the country, was unpronounceable for non-Ka, so Johnny had taken to calling it Capital City in his head.) Whenever Johnny tried to ask Dr Con about places to eat or bars or any type of recreation, really, he would act sort of confused and gesture vaguely, citing the same three chain restaurants every time. Johnny could tell they were chains because he knew for a fact he’d heard the words and seen the same signs enough times to make him go crazy on their way across Capital City. All the while, the doctor and Parker talked about science and biology and blah blah blah. Johnny enjoyed a good physics discussion significantly less than the next chief engineer, instead preferring to engage with experiments to find answers.

Great Bird, Parker was boring. Johnny knew that before this trip, of course, but he’d been absolutely no fun for the last three hours while they tried to figure out what the hell they were supposed to do with this alien holographic generator. It was nothing like what they’d seen before on the _Fantastic_ , still using rudimentary wires and nodes instead of data chips. Johnny was fairly familiar with wire-based systems as he loved working with antiques, but this was still an alien system. Parker was some help, but he still didn’t do as much as Johnny was hoping he would. He started talking theory with Dr Con instead about an hour ago and never stopped. Of course as soon as the two of them stopped staring at the ancient, half broken generator Con had them studying, their conversation immediately drifted into other theory. Johnny’s fingers were hurting, his brain was screaming, and his ass felt like it was about to fall off from the length of time he’d been stuck in this awkward position on the floor.

“Pardon the interruption, Doc,” Johnny said, standing and stretching his back out as best he could, “it’s only that we’ve been working for quite a while now and I haven’t eaten in half a day. Mind if we take a break and grab some grub?”

“Deepest apologies, Commander Storrm,” Dr Con said, bowing deeply.

Johnny waved his hand in dismissal. “Call me Johnny, please, Great Bird, call me Johnny. I can’t stand titles. All I want is some food.”

“What my colleague means to say,” Parker definitely rolled his eyes that time, “is that we’d really appreciate it if you’d allow us to further encroach upon your hospitality and let us know where we can find some dinner.” Johnny snorted. Kiss ass.

The doc said a bunch of other stupid polite apology stuff and led them back to the weird half-tram half-car vehicle they’d used to get there. What Johnny wouldn’t give to learn how this thing worked. Pretty soon they arrived at a small house about halfway between the lab and the president’s office, if Johnny wasn’t mistaken.

“My humble abode is yours for the evening,” Dr Con said, bowing deeply and gesturing that the officers enter the house. It was small and dopey looking from the outside, seemingly made of hardened mud or clay bricks and not having much landscaping. On the inside, though, the adobe really shone.

The house was evidently half above and half below ground, descending into a massive front hall-slash-living area. It looked about as dramatic and huge as the place they’d beamed down to earlier that afternoon. Johnny could see that the entry level also held a bedroom at the other side of the balcony area. Below, there appeared to be a few tunnels leading away from the front room, presumably to other large group rooms.

Johnny preferred living high above the ground when he could help it, but this was really fuckin cool.

“Humble nothing, Doc, your place is amazing!” Johnny couldn’t help but exclaim. Parker facepalmed but Dr Con took his comment in stride as he led them down the stairs and through one of the passages.

“I am deeply gratified that you so greatly enjoy my home, Comm—“ Dr Con was able to stop himself before he used Johnny’s title. “Johnny. Over the last few years, my wife and I have been able to expand our home enough to take in the orphans displaced by the Ravagers’ last attack. We do not have the tax money to build a new orphanage as my wife’s plan is having trouble gaining ground in the Senate, so we are improvising, one might say.”

Johnny smiled. That was the coolest thing he’d heard one of these stuffy old leaders say in a while. He could see as he looked down the adjoining hallways that there were a great number of closed off rooms, presumably housing the orphans Con mentioned. He looked over and saw that Parker was smiling, too. Johnny wondered at that. He was fairly certain he’d never seen the guy smile before, though Johnny admittedly hadn’t been paying much attention. He was suddenly overcome by the desire to know why an improvised orphanage would make the Vulcan happy enough to emote.

Con led them to a large dining room with at least fifty chairs in it. The chairs were all made out of something that resembled Trillian humbo trees or Earth’s bamboo, and so was the table. It had already been set for a full complement. Johnny wondered how they had known to prepare for company.

“The children normally eat in here when we do not have company, but tonight we have invited a full array of diplomats for your welcome ceremony,” Dr Con explained. Johnny’s eyes bugged out.

“How many people are we talking here, Doc?”

Parker frowned. “Were you not listening at all earlier?” Johnny stared blankly in response, causing Parker to scoff and roll his eyes. “President Con invited the planet council to come meet us so that they can see that we’re trustworthy and just trying to help. She also wants us to hear about the rest of the planet, which I asked for so that I could better understand their species and biome diversity. Seriously, do you just zone out when people are talking to you?”

“Well excuse me for trying to do my job,” Johnny countered, crossing his arms in a huff. “Maybe if you hadn’t been so busy talking to the Doc about natural history we’d already been done with the job and back on the ship where we belong!”

“Good of you to have so quickly forgotten our situation, Flame Brain,” Parker spat. “In case you don’t recall, the _Fantastic_ left. We don’t know when they’ll be back. Stop being isolationist, get your head out of your ass, and learn about this new world that we’ll be stuck on for Surak knows how long!”

They were both breathing heavily, standing in each others’ space in order to argue better. Really, all it achieved was an uncomfortable proximity and an addendum for Johnny to add to his earlier crisis.

_Oh no, he’s hot_ when he’s angry.

“Ha,” Johnny pulled back with a smirk. “So much for the famous Vulcan emotion controls. That’s the second time in as many minutes you’ve shown an emotion.”

Parker reached over and thunked Johnny soundly on the forehead. “I’m half Vulcan, Hot Head. You’d know that if you bothered to get to know me. Besides that, I was raised on Earth. I only use the emotionless facade to mess with racist assholes like you.”

He walked off in a huff, and Johnny realized that he was alone.

Well. That went well.


	6. Full disclosure, this isn't going well

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jen is upset and Peter and Johnny make up a little

"It worked! I don't understand it, but it worked!"

"Familial comparability, I assume."

"Hush, or you'll wake them."

Wanda? R'eyd? Was that...?

"Jen I know you can hear me and I just--"

She sat up and before anyone could say why, she had her hands around his throat. She was screaming, choking him, choking Bruce. She felt angry. Angrier than she had ever felt before. Strange couldn't get her hands off of him. No one could. No one could--

She was angry, screaming, choking him, choking him, choking Bruce, choking Wyatt.

Wyatt?

Wyatt! No!

"No!" The commander screamed, throwing off her blankets. Where was he? Where was her husband? She needed to find him, to be sure he was alright!

She was halfway to sickbay when she remembered. Wyatt was gone. She hadn't done it, nothing was her fault, he had been taken.

Jen wanted to talk to Wyatt. She wanted to talk to Johnny. But, she'd have to settle for Crystal.

She sighed, slipping down to the floor of the corridor. Tomorrow. She would talk to Crystal tomorrow, once they had found the bastards who took him. And if they still hadn't--

If they hadn't...

If they still hadn't found them, Jen would be able to stop feeling embarrassed when she cried on the hallway floor. At that point, no one could blame her.

She’d had this nightmare before, of course. The day of her accident, that awful day back on the _Avenger_ , had never really left her. Hell, it could never leave her, she’d always have Bruce’s half Klingon blood running through her veins as an angry reminder of that day. Strange had tried his best, but apparently they’d had to bring R'eyd in to finish the reconstruction of her liver and stomach. She was nearly one of a kind, half Vulcan half Orion and all confusing, and only Bruce and R'eyd fully understood her internal anatomy. Somehow, she’d made it through, and when she woke up she had been so blinded with rage that she nearly killed Bruce. They’d gotten her to calm down fast enough but…

Usually the nightmare followed everything that happened the day that disruptor hit her in the chest to the letter. Still sometimes, like when someone she loved was in danger because of her, it came back differently.

If only she’d stepped in front of R'eyd instead of Wyatt. If only she’d been able to get Sue to stop and listen to her husband. If only she—

If only she’d been able to talk to him after their fight the night before, tell him she loved him one last time.

…

Jen needed a drink.

——-

Vermillion. The Ka had given Peter a vermillion suit, glowing in its trompe d’oeil. Granted, he could always just go to the dinner in uniform, but after the fuss Johnny had put up about the suits, he figured he’d have to wear the damn thing.

Peter sighed. Johnny.

Storrm was, and had been long before he and Peter first met, the most stubborn person he’d ever heard of. He was hot headed, thick skulled, and seemingly made of a never ending supply of stupid. Peter had never met a more culturally incentive guy. Not to mention the fact that he had apparently forgotten about the crew as soon as they had flown off. Peter wasn’t normally one to judge someone he’d just started to get to know, though Gwen and MJ would probably argue otherwise, but Johnny Storrm took the cake. Peter couldn’t help it. It was like the engineer had been created just to annoy him.

There was a knock at the door and Peter sighed. He could bet he knew who that was.

“Come in,” he called. The knock had come from the doors adjoining the guest rooms that Peter and Johnny had been given. They weren’t large, and they had a shared bathroom, but they were very nice. Peter’s room held a queen size four poster bed and a large dresser with the same width mirror on top. The dresser didn’t hold anything except spare linens, Peter’s uniform, and a set of pajamas provided by Dr Con, but it looked impressive nonetheless.

Johnny walked sheepishly through the door adjoining their rooms, and Peter choked on air.

He was wearing a deep cerulean suit that brought out his eyes in the best of ways. It looked like it had been specially tailored, it fit so well. Of course, Peter imagined both of their suits had been tailored for them as there was no way they would fit a Ka. His shoes and belt were black with silver accents. His tie was silver, too, with a lighter blue shirt under his jacket to tie everything together. Peter hated the guy, but he sure cleaned up nice.

“Hi.” Peter realized he’d been staring and blushed, turning around quickly to fix his tie in the mirror and block his view of Johnny in the process. “All set?”

Johnny made a noise of affirmation from behind him. They were going to be quite the pair at dinner. Peter hoped that they’d be seated far apart so that he could actually get some good conversation in. He’d hate to be interrupted by Johnny’s questions about Ka social life all evening.

“Sorry about earlier,” Johnny said suddenly, causing Peter to start and turn around. Johnny was scuffing his toe into the rug. “You’re right, I was being insensitive. I never even asked you about your family or any aspect of your life, really. I could have at least tried being a better roommate instead of coming back in the middle of the night and being generally thoughtless.”

“Oh.” Peter was staring again, but this time it didn’t matter. He was welcome to stare, Johnny Storrm was apologizing. To not look at him now would be like missing a lunar eclipse. “Thanks, Johnny.” It was all he could manage to say.

“Okay, well,” Johnny stuttered out. He was still staring at his feet. “We should probably go… eat and stuff.”

“Yeah,” Peter said quickly. “Yeah, lets go try and find Curt.”

They made their way back down the winding hallways until they eventually found themselves back out in the living room that they had first seen. Johnny whistled in appreciation.

“Nice digs, huh?” Was the most intelligent thing he had to say. It made Peter snort, though not derisively as he had come to expect.

“I’d say you would know, but would you?” Was his reply.

“Eh,” Johnny shrugged still staring at the ceiling, “I wish. I haven’t had my own place in years, not since Sue got her captaincy. I’m telling you though, man, if I wasn’t so worried about all my stuff getting burned in a firey space crash, I’d have the flyest, illest cabin on the _Fantastic_.”

“Isn’t there someone you’d need to check that with first?” Johnny took a moment to understand, but when he did his eyes were as wide as saucers.

“I’m so sorry, I keep forgetting that we’re roommates and therefore I’d need to ask you about any changes to the quarters.” He looked genuinely apologetic, and the rate at which this was happening was starting to give Peter whiplash.

“Oh please,” Peter replied smoothly. “I swear to the Great Bird, if you change any of our decor without asking, I’ll request that you be put in the brig immediately.”

Johnny snorted out a quick laugh, making Peter do so as well. He was cute when he laughed.

_Stop it, brain, he can’t be cute if he’s a dingus_.

And he was.

A dingus, that is. It was just that sometimes, when the sun hit him just right, he looked like a star himself. Like Apollo. Like now, when he was going through a second wave of laughter at Peter’s mediocre joke and his face was contorting in the weirdest way Peter had ever seen. Peter couldn’t help but love that face.

“Race you to the dining room?” Peter suggested.

Johnny grinned. “You’re on!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ok I'm gonna be straight with you folks, I am 70% done with the rest of this story. I swear to Frigg that I will post the end of this thing if it kills me. Fortunately, the semester is almost over and I'm currently on Thanksgiving break. Unfortunately, that means I have two projects, two essays, and a test to worry about for the next two weeks. Also, I'm a Supernatural fan...  
> Let's hope I can finish this over the next week, eh?


	7. Meet Rizzo

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> R'eyd and Wyatt are in an unfortunate position  
> Jen worries

Wyatt awoke to the sound of clinking and clunking which quickly turned into shouting and the opening of their door. He jumped up, ready to defend R’eyd, but it was only their lunch. The kid who brought it to them was the same one as he had been the last three days, in the same bad mood, carrying the same hunk of meat. Wyatt was starting to worry about the Doc. He hadn’t eaten in all of those days they’d been on the Ravagers’ ship. Wyatt knew that Vulcans didn’t have to eat as often as humans before they’d starve, but he’d need his strength if they were going to break out of there. Speaking of… where _was_ R’eyd?

“Wingfoot, hand me your left shoe.” Ah, there, at the other end of their cell on the floor next to-

“Great Bird, what is that?” Wyatt exclaimed, probably too loudly. He passed over the shoe, trustingprobably too much but not caring in the face of the giant rat outside the cell. It was about a foot tall and looked mean.

“A rat, Wingfoot, it will not harm you,” was the reply. That doc, always calmer than the desert at night.

“I figured it was, Doc, but why are you…” Wyatt was dumbstruck. “Are you communicating with it?”

“Don’t be ridiculous,” R'eyd replied. He made several small gestures then with his hands and the rat tilted its head, seemingly in response. R'eyd nodded and slipped the shoe through the bars to place it in front of the rat. It titled its head again and scampered off, shoe dragging behind. Wyatt stared in shock at the place where the rat used to be.

“R’eyd,” he started, “why did you give my shoe to a rat?”

“It is not simply a rat, Lieutenant, it is a life form with a complex method of communication. I have keyed into this system and managed to express our situation to them. They required your shoe in exchange for their services.” R'eyd looked as though he expected this explanation to be taken with no questions asked. Wyatt had other ideas.

“I don’t understand you, man. You asked a rat for help in escaping an alien brig when I already told you, in my professional opinion as a security expert, that there is no way out of here. What could a rat possibly do that neither of us can?”

R'eyd chose to, instead of answering, stand quietly from his crouched position and move to his sleeping area of the floor. He settled in, sitting on his feet with his eyes closed. He was clearly preparing to meditate without answering at all. Wyatt rolled his eyes not unkindly and shifted so that his back was against the wall, facing outward towards the bars of their cell. He needn’t really expect an answer from R'eyd anyway, the best he could hope for was a “ _kaiidth_ ” and a comforting twitch of the corner of his mouth. He decided that the best plan for his sanity was to keep watch while the Doc ordered his thoughts.

“Trust in me, Wyatt, that is all I can ask.” The sentence was said without the Vulcan opening his eyes or even turning to face his companion. Wyatt understood, just as he understood that no response was needed. R'eyd was a smart man, he would figure something out to at least keep them both alive until help came. All Wyatt had to do was sit tight and keep him safe.

\-----

They were getting into the fifth day of not being able to find the Ravager ship, and Jevnouvir Valtus was worried for a number of reasons. It should be noted that Jen was not, in many circumstances, a worrier. She liked to tackle her problems head on as soon as they arose. It was illogical to put off what was to be addressed as soon as possible. It was equally illogical to spend time expressing concern for events which are beyond one’s control. This philosophy of life became much stronger after Jevnouvir had received the blood transplant from her cousin Bruce. His Klingon blood had, perhaps to a stronger degree than truly made sense, enhanced Jen’s degree of desire to address her problems directly. Sue had pointed out to her in the first few months of recovery that Jen had even less Vulcan verbal discipline than before the accident. She said what she meant, and sometimes what she meant contained expletives.

Poor Sue. Both of their husbands had been missing far too long now, and their Vulcan bonds were suffering. Jen’s was not as strong with Wyatt as Sue’s was with R'eyd, simply because Jen was only half Vulcan. This was at least part of the reason why Jen was more concerned for her friend than she was for herself. She knew how strong marriage bonds could be, and had a pretty explicit picture of how strong Sue and R'eyd’s was simply by virtue of understanding his immense brain capacity. Of course, Jen hadn’t done the best job _expressing_ this concern thus far…

Even worse, Jen could see the effect that this was having on her friend day to day. She didn’t have Johnny to lean on. She could also see that though Sue could have reached out to Ben or Crystal to talk about how she was feeling, she completely ignored those opportunities. Sue clearly felt directly responsible for her R'eyd being kidnapped right in front of her. This blame was entirely misplaced. None of this was Sue’s fault, it was Jen’s.

Jen recognized of course that the exact behavior which concerned her in Sue was also what she was doing. However, in Jen it was entirely justified. As part of her duties as first officer, it was her responsibility to take care of the health and safety of the crew. She had failed in her duties, and therefore Wyatt was gone. He’d been taken, and Jevnouvir had no way of knowing if she’d ever get him back.

Her alarm brought her out of her spiral of dark thoughts, beeping forty minutes before shift as it always did. For the last five days, she’s woken up three hours before her alarm and been unable to return to sleep.

Commander Valtus went through her usual quick morning routine before going up the turbo lift to relieve Ben from the night watch. She hoped he wouldn’t be in too bad of a mood today just because of his weekly double shift. If it would make him feel any better, she decided she would remind Ben that she was on double today, too.

On her way to bridge, surprisingly, she ran into just the person she was hoping not to see.

“Morning, Commander,” Crystal chirped. “Did you sleep well?”

Jen scoffed. “If you call an hour well, then yes it was wonderful.”

“An hour?” Crystal’s eyes were wide. “How are you even standing? Go back to your quarters at once!”

“Relax, doc,” Jen couldn’t help but smile a little as she said it. Crys was such a worrier. “Vulcans only need four hours of sleep a night. I’m fine.”

“Right,” Crystal said, making a face, “Vulcans who _meditate_ only need four hours of sleep. You need six.”

“Of _course_ you knew that,” Jen muttered.

“Between the doctor, you, and about fifteen other Vulcans on this crazy ship, I’d better know how you work!” Crystal joked. When she didn’t receive a smile from Jen, she pulled her to the side of the corridor. The had run into each other still in the officers’ quarters hallway and therefore hadn’t seen too many crew members, but Jen appreciated her desire to protect her privacy.

“How are you feeling?” The Xindi asked quietly. Jen inhaled, intending to reply with a fabrication, but Crystal cut her off. “You haven’t come to see me at all since it happened. With Johnny gone, I had hoped that you would come and have a chat with me.”

“You know how I’m feeling, kid,” Jen sighed. “Like you’re always so ready to mention, I’m part Vulcan. The stress on the bond, it worries me.” Jen checked the hall quickly to see if they had any passers-by. “But I’m more worried about Sue.”

Crystal nodded sagely. “She has also not come to see me. She worries me more than you as I know how much you enjoy making your opinions known.”

“She worries me, too,” Jen said, taking the opportunity to shift the focus off of herself. “She hasn’t talked to anyone about it as far as I know, not since she asked you and I to her quarters for options.”

“Well,” Crys replied, conscious of the time, “I suppose I’ll have to order her to come down and see me if she won’t do it herself.”

“I’ll talk to her,” Jen offered. “Maybe she’ll come down after all. Or at least talk to Ben about it.”

Crystal shrugged noncommittally. “Godspeed.” Jen wanted the day to be over already and it hadn’t even started.

When she reached the bridge, she found Sue in the captain’s chair, and Ben’s usual pilot replacement in his seat.

“Morning, Captain,” Jen greeted her in a cheerful tone. “I wasn’t expecting to see you here until beta shift.”

“Ah, yes,” Sue was reading a tablet and didn’t even spare Jen a glance as the other woman came up to stand next to the center chair. “Excellent point.”

Jen walked closer and cleared her throat dramatically, forcing Sue to look up.

“Ah, Valtus, good,” Sue said, turning immediately back to her tablet. “I woke up at three in the morning with an idea on how to modify our scanners to search for our missing crewmen.”

“Oh, really,” Jen raised an eyebrow. “Sounds exciting. Why don’t you tell me about it in your quarters? Where you’re supposed to be when I’m on shift?”

“Commander,” Sue threatened, face hardening. Jen knew she was pushing buttons that ought not be pushed, but if Sue didn’t take a break soon she was going to go mad.

“Captain,” Jen replied smoothly. She knew better than to antagonize Sue in front of the crew, so she was being careful. This was the most she could do before Sue would get fed up and throw her off the bridge. “Don’t make me call the Night Nurse on you.”

“I-“ Sue started, then stopped, her shoulders suddenly slumped. “Right. Ready room, Commander. Stacy, you’re in charge.”

The young woman at the science station squeaked and Jen fought the urge to smirk. And she had thought Peter was a little young to have the conn. Jen’s smirk disappeared when she remembered the first time Wyatt was left the conn. He had looked just as terrified as Stacy, but there was a slight tinge to his gaze. He was scared, but he knew he would be brave if the occasion arose. Jen missed him so much.

The two women strode quickly into Sue’s office. Normally, they would settle into their respective chairs. This time, however, Sue started pacing and Jen felt that she had too much energy to sit.

“You see, Jen, our scanners are currently searching for a warp trail, right?” The captain said, starting in the middle. “But if we can modify them to search for a smaller, more specific item, then maybe we’d be able to find R'eyd instead of the ship.”

“Interesting,” Jen said, trying to let the captain down easy so she didn’t become too upset. “Like the tactic we used on our last mission on Triskelion?”

“Exactly!” Sue said. She stopped pacing for a moment to exclaim, then went right back to it. Jen decided to cut her off now before she got too excited.

“Sue,” she said slowly, “correct me if I’m wrong, but weren’t we in orbit around Triskelion when we set the scanners for sandstone? I’m not sure that could work with the ravagers’ ship, even at a close range.”

Sue stopped pacing and didn’t look up at her first officer. She didn’t say anything at first, and Jen didn’t want to push. The last thing she wanted was to make Sue even more upset.

“I just,” Sue said softly, “miss him. I miss him already and I feel helpless to fix it. What do I do?” After that impossible question, she looked up at the much taller woman. There were tear stains on her face, but it looked like the captain was out of tears to shed. Her lip was trembling. Jen brought her into a hug.

“I know, Suzie, I know,” she soothed. Comfort was not her strong suit, but she would try her best. “I do too. We’ve tried everything we can think of, and it’s still not enough. But here’s the thing, Blondie, you and me are a dream team.” Jen squeezed her friend on each of the last two words. “We’ve been through hell together, even before Starfleet, and you know what that tells me?”

“What?” Sue sniffled and moved away.

“It tells me,” Jen smiled as best she could, “that no matter how long it takes, no matter what it takes, we’re going to find our boys and bring them home.”

\-----

“Alright, now, you get back in there.” Wyatt stood to catch R'eyd as he was shoved roughly into their cell. “I’ll come back when you’re ready to talk. You just let me know when you’ve made a decision.” The captain of the Ravagers cackled as he relocked their cell and walked away back towards the bridge. Wyatt wanted to punch him.

“Are you ok, Doctor?” Wyatt asked his friend as he lowered both of them onto the floor. He set the doctor against the back wall of their cell and checked him for injuries. There was a nasty green cut on his left cheek, but other than that Wyatt couldn’t see anything wrong.

“What happened while I was gone, Lieutenant?” Wyatt pulled away from his check and frowned. He sat back, crossing his legs in his spot on the floor, and sighed.

“It was just like you said, Doc. Rizzo came back with another round of that celery-looking stuff and twitched his nose before he left.”

“I wish you wouldn’t call them that,” R'eyd responded. He opened his eyes and slowly moved to take the alien vegetable out of their now normal hiding place. “It is unethical to assign name and gender to an intelligent being.”

“Sorry, Doc, I’ll try and remember that next time they come by.” Wyatt sighed. He enjoyed the Doc, he really did, it was just that he frayed nerves after prolonged exposure. Wyatt didn’t think he’d ever been alone with R'eyd for sixty minutes, let alone six days. “Anyway, what happened to you?”

“I was questioned just as before,” R'eyd responded curtly. If Wyatt didn’t know better, he’d have said that the Vulcan was displaying annoyance at his continued speech.

Captain Yondu had been coming by their cell once a day every day since the first day they’d been abducted. The first day, R'eyd told Wyatt everything that had happened in the interrogation room down to the letter. Since then, he’d reported the same treatment every day. Yondu wanted to know three things: what the _Fantastic_ was doing at Ka, how he knew about their weapons, and if they were being pursued. R'eyd gave him the same manufactured reasons every time, not lying but not telling the whole truth either. Yondu hadn’t quite resorted to violence yet, but he seemed to be escalating. They needed to figure out a way out of there sooner rather than later.

"You said our little friend was going to help us more," Wyatt started. "But all he's done is the same thing over and over, bringing celery and leaving."

"Do you have a point, Lieutenant?" R'eyd snapped. He quickly closed his eyes and took a deep breath after that. He left his eyes closed but looked like he was listening.

“I just don’t appreciate bein’ kept in the dark all the time, Doc!” Wyatt whispered forcefully. He had the presence of mind to try not to alert the guards to the fight, but that didn’t mean he was done being mad. “I’m not an idiot, you can trust me with minor details, man.”

R'eyd breathed deeply a few times and said nothing. Wyatt knew him well enough to wait the Vulcan out. If he didn’t say anything for too long, he was being ignored.

After a full minute had passed, R'eyd opened his eyes again to look directly at Wyatt. “I… apologize, Wyatt. I am not myself. I am sure you are frayed as well. As I said before, I am able to communicate with our friend and their people. We are collectively determining a course of action. Once we have a definitive plan, I will inform you of it.”

Wyatt sighed. That was probably as much as he was going to get. Oh, well, at least he could chat with Rizzo when they came by with the celery.


	8. A Little Fun, A Little Fight

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Peter isn't sure what's going on with Johnny and he's not sure he likes it.  
> Sue finds Wyatt.

They had been on Ka for a week now, and Peter was starting to miss their old quarters. It wasn’t that he was wistful for hearing Johnny snore, but he hadn’t been able to message Aunt May since the _Fantastic_ left and he was getting antsy. He assumed Gwen had updated Aunt May and MJ on his situation, but he didn’t like that he had to leave that up to chance.

Even worse was Johnny’s increasingly absent focus. Peter had found him difficult to work with before they had been left on Ka, but now that they had worked out some of their issues, Johnny had somehow become even less focused than before. Case in point—

“Johnny, hand me that scanner, will you?” Peter asked. He didn’t turn around as he needed to hold these wires out of the way or risk something falling. His hand remained empty. “Johnny?” He asked again. Finally, on the third and loudest try, he received a reply.

“Hey, don’t have a cow, man, I’m right behind you,” the Trill exclaimed. Peter sighed.

“That’s great, ‘man’, but you still haven’t handed me the scanner I need. What are you doing back there, anyway?”

Johnny squeaked out a “nothing” in an undignified manner at the question, but dutifully handed Peter the tool he needed. They had been in this confined tube for about fifteen minutes, and Peter wanted to figure out if they were done so they could leave quickly. They were only able to crawl in on their hands and knees to fit back there, both having to go in to check the systems faster, and Johnny had been right behind him the whole time. It bothered Peter not being able to keep an eye on what Johnny was up to.

“Ah,” the scanner beeped and Peter allowed himself a small smile. “That’s more like it. All of your systems go, fly boy?”

“Yep, all good back here,” Johnny said quickly, sounding mildly strangled as he bumped something on the ceiling, presumably his oversized head.

“Back it up, Trill, and let’s get the hell out of here,” Peter replied. The sooner the better.

Johnny had been acting pretty strange over the last few days on Ka.As Peter was reminded multiple times in the access tube, Johnny’s lack of focus was disturbing. It was more than that, though, like there was something about Peter that was throwing the guy off. Peter intended to get to the bottom of it.

“So let me think here,” Johnny said, checking his list now that they were back on the outside of the massive projector. “We’ve connected the regenerative power supply, replaced the bulbs, dotted the i’s, crossed the t’s… I think we’re ready to take this little lady for a test drive! What do you say, Pete?”

Peter found himself smiling lightly again. “Sounds good to me. Light it up, Flame Brain.” Johnny did as he was bid, and this time there was no hiding their grins as the holographic generator roared to life. They high-fived in celebration.

“Hell yeah!” Johnny yelled, pumping his fist. “Now that is what I call totally tubular.”

Peter rolled his eyes. “You dork.”

Johnny stuck his tongue out at him, making Peter smile again. They really did it. They had managed to recreate the generator of Ka’s past using old wires and new solar panels. Peter didn’t throw around the word ‘genius’ lightly, but he’d be keeping it in mind for the next time Johnny surprised him. Still, there remained the question…

“Now what?” Yes, that. Trust Johnny to want to move on to the next project as soon as he’s finished the first.

“I have no idea,” Peter shrugged. “I suppose we could ask Dr Con if he has any other projects of import. He was telling me the other day about…” he trailed off as he turned to see Johnny grinning devilishly at him. “What?”

“Well,” Johnny started as nonchalantly as possible for someone with his personality type, “it seems to me that work time is over. We’re still on this alien planet until my sister gets back, so we might as well enjoy ourselves.” He ended his statement with a playful wink, more friendly than flirtatious, but its implications were still doing interesting things to Peter’s insides.

“What did you have in mind?” Peter tried to make his voice sound normal through the surprising feeling in his stomach, but wasn’t sure he succeeded. Johnny’s only reply was another wink before he was sashaying his way out the main lab doors.

...

Apparently what Johnny had in mind was bar hopping.

Peter had no idea what this was meant to accomplish as everyone on Ka was the same reptilian species. They appeared to be impossible for a human male to successfully copulate with, Johnny didn’t seem very interested in their culture, and all of their bars were about fifteen degrees too warm to compensate for the residents' lack of body heat. Peter and his Vulcan heritage were doing fine, though bored, and Johnny was drenched in sweat while grinning like a fool.

“Isn’t this place great?” Johnny asked, having to yell over the din of at least a hundred hissing Ka. Peter stared at him, incredulous.

“Define great,” Peter replied. It wasn’t exactly a joke, more genuine confusion than sarcasm, but Johnny laughed anyway.

“I mean,” his coworker said, sliding closer to Peter on the bench to speak more quietly, “look around. Everyone here is doing the same thing as they would in any given bar on any Federation planet. They’re celebrating, trying to find mates, being lonely and depressed, dancing… well, I’m pretty sure that’s dancing, but you catch my drift.” Johnny was sitting right next to Peter now, his left arm against Peter’s right as he pressed in close to talk in Peter’s ear.

Pete was sure he was bright green from the contact, but Johnny didn’t seem to notice.

“Every planet I’ve ever been to, I’ve gone to their bars.” Peter wanted to step in and make a derogatory joke here, but Johnny’s tone was soft and sober enough that he refrained. “You know what I found? No matter where you go, people are just… people. Sure, customs change and dances vary; you can’t hit on an Andorian the way you hit on a Betazoid, that I can tell you from experience.”

Here, Johnny moved forward to make Peter meet his gaze. It was softer than Peter expected it to be and full of something he couldn’t identify.

“At the end of the day, everybody is just looking for someone to hold them when the night grows cold.”

If the room were quieter, Peter’s gulp would have been audible. As it was, he just kept staring at Johnny as Johnny stared at him, hoping to the Great Bird that what he thought was happening wasn’t really happening. After a short moment, but one still too long for Peter’s liking, Johnny turned away and sighed. He sat back against the bench, looking half satisfied and half disappointed. Peter didn’t like the second half.

“I wouldn’t have expected you to be so… thoughtful about something like this,” Peter offered, still looking at the side of his companion’s face. He thought he could see a pattern in the spots by Johnny’s temple.

The man in question sighed.

“I know, I’m too much of an airhead for that, right?” Johnny lolled his head to look at Peter again. His gaze was held and Peter put as much sincerity into his reply as he could muster.

“You’re a good man, Johnny Storrm.”

The soft smile Peter received as a response was enough to remind him of propriety. It had too much in it, too much that Peter wasn’t ready for.

“We should head back to the President’s compound,” Peter said a little louder than he had been speaking before. He stood up and Johnny did the same, looking disappointed. “I haven’t meditated in too long, I must reorder my thoughts.”

“Of course,” Johnny allowed. He put on a smile that didn’t quite reach his eyes and offered an elbow to Peter. “Right this way, my good sir, your taxi awaits!” Peter allowed himself a small chuckle at his friend’s antics, though if pressed he would say that the laugh was for Johnny’s sake.

The cab ride was short and soon they were standing outside of their respective doors. Johnny was looking at Peter. Peter was looking at his shoes.

“Good night, Commander,” Peter said stiffly. He opened his door and walked through.

A small, wounded “night, Pete,” followed him.

With the door closed and the lights on, Peter slumped to the floor and onto his stomach.

What the hell was he doing?

This man was Johnny Storrm. He was practically famous as Starfleet’s “love ‘em and leave ‘em” man of the year. He was arrogant, juvenile, and an all around trouble maker. He was his roommate for crying out loud! How would that work out, huh? When Johnny was driving him crazy, where would Peter hide? Even worse, Johnny was… Well, he was…

Well, whatever else Harry had said about him when Peter had been promoted and moved into Johnny’s quarters. There were _reasons_ that he couldn’t fraternize with this guy. _Important_ reasons.

Peter sighed heavily and lifted himself to sit in his meditation position. He had used meditation as an excuse to leave the bar, but now he really did need to. Anything to keep him from making a mistake this big.

\-----

“Captain, Ravager ship dead ahead one light year,” Jen’s voice came over the speaker in Sue’s quarters. She breathed a sigh of relief that she didn’t realize she’d been holding in.

“I’ll be right there.” It had been one full day, all three shifts, since they had begun their specialized scans for the signal of the algae used in the composition of their uniforms, and frankly Sue was surprised that that gambit had paid off so quickly. She knew Ben hadn’t thought it would work at all, though he hadn’t said as much outright as he didn’t want to upset her. She appreciated him more than he realized some days.

R’eyd had been gone for a week now, and Sue was really starting to crack. She hadn’t been able to sleep more than four hours at a time for the last two days. She didn’t dare tell anyone how poorly she was doing. Jennifer couldn’t take command, she was just as emotionally compromised as Sue. If the two of them were put on forced leave by the nurse, the only senior officers left would be Ben and Crystal. She had faith in her crew, especially Ben, but she was not going to put him in that understaffed position if she didn’t have to.

Despite what she knew Crystal and Nurse Tampeil would say, Sue wasn’t in that bad a way just yet.

“Status report,” Sue demanded, stepping onto the bridge. Jen stood from the center chair and immediately moved to take her position at navigation. The red alert was on and Sue could see why. The ship was directly in front of them. How had their sensors not warned them earlier?

“Ravager ship refusing hail on the grounds that I wasn’t you,” Jen supplied. “They have shields raised and phasers at the ready, as do we, but they haven’t yet fired. Their specialized weapon also appears to be fully charged and waiting.”

“Lieutenant Mattemos?” Sue asked, sitting in her chair and turning to look behind her at the Romulan beta shift security officer.

“As far as Officer Stacy and I can tell, Ma’am, it’s a propulsion weapon,” Mattemos replied. “Scans revealed a very large object inside the weapon’s main shaft. Basic configuration indicates cannon-like torpedo, only about ten times as massive and in a spherical shape.”

“Hail them.”

“Aye, Captain.”

The Ravager captain appeared on screen wearing the same jagged grin he'd had the week before. The same grin he'd had when he'd ordered the kidnapping of her husband.

“Well if it ain’t Suzie and the peanut crew!” The other captain exclaimed. Sue grit her teeth and said her piece.

“I will say this once more, and that is all,” she began. “I am Captain Storrm of the _USS Fantastic_. By the authority given to me by the United Federation of Planets, I order you to return my officers to me unharmed and leave this nebula at once. All items taken from the planet Ka must be returned. If you do not meet my demands, I shall be forced to take drastic measures.”

“I’m only gonna say my piece one more time, too,” the captain replied. “My name’s Yondu, and you ain’t gonna do shit so long as I got your husband on board. Now you can mosey on back to your government’s area of jurisdiction, or I can blast you to Dagooine, we clear?”

“Prepare to fire,” Sue ordered. Loudly, Yondu cut her off.

“I don’t think you quite understand the position you’re in.” He sat forward in his chair, spreading his knees wide and placing his elbows on them, hands folded.

“Taserface!” He barked.

A large man walked into view on the Ravager bridge, dragging behind him Wyatt Wingfoot. Jen took in a sharp breath, quiet enough to escape the notice of their enemy. Wyatt had a blood on his upper lip and the beginnings of a bruise on the bridge of his nose, but otherwise looked unharmed. He was looking at the view screen but he didn’t speak.

“Well,” Yondu said, impatient. “Ain’t you gonna say hello?”

Sue moved forward to surreptitiously place a hand on Jen’s shoulder. With physical contact, Jen might be able to relay some of what Wyatt told her through their bond on to Sue. Sue herself was still receiving nothing from her own husband, despite the proximity.

“Lieutenant,” Sue greeted her friend as stonily as she could.

“Captain,” Wyatt replied. He looked just the way a security chief should when kidnapped, calm and collected and ready to fight at a moment’s notice. Sue felt a wave of relief and reassurance wash through her that was not her own. Good, that meant Wyatt was in just as good health as he appeared.

“What do you want, Yondu?” Sue continued, trying her best to appear unconcerned as to Wyatt’s condition.

“What do I want?” Yondu barked, laughing. “Girlie, weren’t you listening? I want you out of my space! If you and I can’t come to some kind of agreement right here and now, you’re going to be looking at one less officer.”

Sue felt Jen’s protectiveness flare up through their contact. She was about to draw her hand away when she saw in her mind an image of a clearly malnourished Vulcan in a torn lab coat.

That was the last straw.

“Lieutenant Mattemos,” Sue ordered, “begin Cupid Shuffle.” She saw Wyatt widen his stance in preparation as Mattemos carried out orders.

The image shook, and Yondu’s surprise turned to anger.

“Warning shots successful, their shields at seventy percent,” Mattemos reported.

“Oh hell no,” Yondu exclaimed. Sue saw the feed flicker again before Yondu cut off the transmission.

“Forty percent.”

“Ravager ship moving away half impulse heading two-five-one mark six,” Jen supplied.

“Follow them,” Sue ordered. “Match their speed as long as you can. Matt, continue firing until we reach warp. Give me visual on screen.”

“Aye, shields now 10%.”

“When their shields are down, pull an Eisenhower.” Sue waited and watched the ship fire its torpedoes. The red alert drills she’d had the crew perform this week appeared to be paying off.

“Reaching .999 impulse,” Ben warned.

"Firing." An explosion ahead made Sue look up. They didn’t feel a shockwave, they were still pretty far from the enemy ship, but the damage had clearly been done.

“Direct hit to their big gun,” Mattemos filled in.

“They’ve gone ahead to Warp One, Captain,” Ben announced.

“Cease fire and maintain speed match.” Why the hell had they gone to warp? And for that matter, why had their shields failed so quickly?

“As before, Captain, losing ground.” Sue cursed and Ben continued. “Enemy speed now warp five-five, six, warp six-five.”

“How the hell did they get up there so fast?” Jen muttered.

“Eight, warp eight-five... Warp nine-five, Captain.”

Sue cursed again and moved back to sit in her chair. “Decrease speed to warp four point five and reverse course.” She should have gone for the engines. If she’d been a stronger woman, she would have.

She could feel the disheartened air of the crew closing in around her. Worse, she felt her own despair about to crush her. What was she meant to do? She was up against a man who apparently had so little regard for his own life that he went to warp nine-nine with a ruptured hull. Did Yondu care about his dead and injured? Did he feel their loss the way Sue felt the loss of her own crew, her own friend and husband?

Sue stood, determined, and walked up to give Mattemos a strong clap on the shoulder.

“You did a great job, Lieutenant. In fact,” she turned to address the bridge at large, “you all did a great job. This… This _Yondu_ is a difficult man to work with. He’s erratic and unreasonable, that much is clear. That said, I know we can find a way to beat him and get our crew back. I will keep believing it until we make it happen. I have to.

“Yondu believes that he can do whatever the hell he wants in this galaxy. He thinks he can steal and plunder from defenseless people, from the sounds of it on many planets throughout the sector. This we cannot allow. The Federation stands for those who cannot protect themselves. We stand for anyone who is being subjected to abuse of power. We have tried to be reasonable, and we will try again. We will keep trying until we have found a way to stop Yondu _and_ get our people back. This we can do, this we _will_ do.”

Here, Sue made eye contact with Jen. She could see there were tears welling up in her friend’s eyes at being separated from her husband yet again, but the belligerent expression on top of those tears was enough to assuage Sue’s concern. She could count on her crew for anything. They were going to get their crew back, she could feel it in her bones.

“Commander, set course to search a spiral around Ka as before. Stacy, I need you to resume scanning for that algae and keep a sharp eye out on other frequencies as well. Mattemos, you and I are going to head down to engineering and see if Osborn can help us figure out what’s going on on that ship. They should not have lost power to their shields that quickly, we need to determine the source of the power drain. Valtus, you have the bridge.”

After each order, she received an “aye, Ma’am.” She couldn’t help but smile to herself. Despite everything, despite her earlier skepticism as to the state of their mission, she found herself with hope again. R’eyd had been hurt, yes, but he was alive and so was Wyatt. They had found the Ravager once, they could do it again. Come hell or high water, she was going to bring those boys home.

\-----

Peter had been acting _so weird_ since that bar two nights ago. He wouldn't talk to Johnny in private. Like, at all. Every time they were in the same room, Peter would focus on whoever they were with more than Johnny. When the person they were with left, Peter usually made up an excuse to leave, too. He'd been holed up in Dr Con's lab working with the Ka on some other project.

"Just for fun," Peter had supplied when pressed. Johnny called bullshit.

He knew when he was being rejected. It was just that typically, he had to ask the person out before he would be treated like this.

_Maybe you've got it wrong_ , the angel on Johnny's shoulder supplied. _Maybe he's just out of sorts right now. You did turn from loathing to friendship pretty fast._

_As if_ , responded Johnny's devil. _He thinks you're an idiot just like everyone else does. You might as well drop him and go back to giving him the silent treatment. At least then it'll be on your terms._

Johnny was in way over his head. Really, he just wanted to make sure his friend was alright.

Well, at least, Johnny _thought_ they were friends. He wanted them to be. He’d been trying for a few days now to stow his more immediate and inflammatory reactions to Peter and he was pretty sure it had been working. Johnny had realized fairly quickly that the things Peter did that had initially annoyed him weren’t really that annoying after all. They were more endearing than anything. Peter was just kind of a… well, a goofy guy. He had a few pet peeves but a well placed pun was usually enough to placate him whenever Johnny overstepped. He also had Johnny’s exact sense of humor. He’d be hard pressed to find someone who made him laugh as much as Peter did.

Which was weird. Johnny still hadn’t gotten a handle on Peter’s exact family situation, but he figured that most half Vulcans weren’t nearly this much fun. Jen was great, of course, and she held a special place in Johnny’s heart after their month together in Taipei, but she was more intimidating than funny most days. Johnny really didn’t know that many other half Vulcans that well, but from what he knew about full-blooded Vulcans they weren’t exactly a laugh riot. Peter on the other hand… Peter had it all.

That night when he and Peter left the dinner table to return to their rooms, Johnny decided to say something. He didn't want to come off as accusatory, but he really was starting to worry about the guy. If anything, Johnny figured he could offer a hand of friendship again just to see how Peter responded.

"Hey Pete?" Johnny asked as the two of them opened their doors.

"Yeah, Johnny?" Pete replied. he turned to look at Johnny, and the weariness was obvious in his eyes.

"You doin ok?" He certainly didn't look like he was doing okay, but Johnny would take whatever answer Peter gave.

What he gave was a small smile that just barely reached his eyes.

"Yeah, Johnny, I'm doing ok." He paused, seemingly considering something before speaking again. "Just hoping the captain comes back soon. I miss the ship."

Johnny smiled at that and saw Peter's own light up a little more.

"Yeah, man, me too. But I got faith in my sister. She'll be back before we know it and you can get back to complaining about me leaving my underwear on the floor." That got a short laugh out of Peter.

"Night, Johnny."

"Night, Peter." Peter gave him one last look and started to disappear into his room, so Johnny called out again. "Don't let the bed weevils eat ya!"

Peter snorted loudly as his door shut behind him.

"See you tomorrow, Hot Stuff."

Johnny flushed down to his toes.

"Ditto, Web Head!" Well, Peter may have been keeping something from Johnny, but at least it looked like he was willing to talk to him again. Besides, he had the right to privacy. Johnny would just have to wait and see how everything turned out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sooooooooo I THINK I might be able to make Johnny and Peter agree to something by the end of this fic. I haven't decided anything concrete yet, but the way they've been acting... ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯
> 
> no promises, though. I'll keep you guys posted. If I dont do it here there will definitely be a sequel. Swear.
> 
> We're almost to the end!


	9. Dinner and a Race

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Finally! R'eyd is a genius and Johnny is upset, but what else is new?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know, and I'm sorry. I took over a week and I have no excuse other than
> 
> well, finals. a 10 page paper is nothing to shake your fist at
> 
> still! here it is! it's extra long if that helps.
> 
> also- yes, I added a chapter! I needed more time to get through the last bit and I figured you all wouldn't mind a little more content anyway, huh?

“R’eyd, what the hell are you doing?” Wyatt asked with a sigh. His companion had been talking to their rat friend for what felt like hours. Wyatt wasn’t even sure how he was doing it, they’d just been staring at each other for a majority of that time. It wasn’t that the young security chief didn’t appreciate the attempt, but he sincerely doubted that R’eyd was getting anywhere with the rodent.

As it had been every time Wyatt asked, he received no answer.

Wyatt felt like banging his head against the wall of their cell. He had never before felt so useless as he did now. Nothing he did helped anything, whether that was trying to break out of their cell or offering to be questioned instead of R’eyd. He’d tried contacting Jen through their bond, and even that produced nothing. He was at a loss with no options left. Even worse was the moment he’d seen Jen two days ago. The worry in her face was clear even after he was able to push a message through, making him feel useless all over again. She was scared for him, that much was clear, especially when the Ravagers took off again.

Wyatt fiddled with his only shoe and sighed. More classic, useless, helpless Wyatt Wingfoot.

“What in the hell is that?” The Ravager captain was standing outside their cell before they knew it. “We got a rat problem still?”

The rat shook their head and made a few squeaks. R’eyd sat back away from the bars and stared at the floor.

“Oh, its just you, Chio,” Yondu said with a frown. Wyatt felt his stomach drop in pure fear. “Whatchu doin’ talkin’ to the prisoners? You know this is off limits.”

The rat, apparently named Chio, tilted their head and scratched their ear. Apparently this action was hilarious in their language because Yondu let out a deep belly laugh.

“That’s a good one, kid. For a second, I almost thought that—“ Yondu was cut off by Taserface’s hasty approach. Wyatt stood up in case there was trouble, noticing R’eyd doing the same.

_What had the old Vulcan done this time?_ Wyatt thought to himself, giving his companion a sideways glance.

“Ship spotted off the rear, Captain,” Taserface reported.

“What?” Yondu exclaimed with a scowl. “Did they see us? Did you fly us away from them?” At Taserface’s blank expression, Yondu growled. He punched his underling hard on the shoulder as he walked past towards the bridge.

“Don’t just stand there, boy, get up here and man your station!” He yelled back. Taserface looked stricken as he scrambled after Yondu with a ‘yes, boss’.

Wyatt turned to talk to R’eyd, but the other prisoner was already chatting animatedly with Chio. Wyatt was about to get ticked, there had to be a better time to discuss whatever it was they were discussing, when Chio scampered off and R’eyd turned back to Wyatt. He looked about as serious as he had during their last major mission together when Ben had gotten hurt.

“Wyatt,” R’eyd started and Wyatt gulped in response. R’eyd only called him Wyatt when shit was about to get real. “Listen carefully. The ship that has just arrived is the _Fantastic_. In the message Chio sent for us, I told Sue exactly how to disable their plasma gun.”

“Their _what_?”

“Hush, Wyatt. There is going to be a large lurch in a moment, so ready yourself.” As soon as Wyatt readjusted his footing, the lurch happened. “Now hand me your shoe.”

Wyatt did so without question as soon as the rumbling stopped. There was yelling on the decks above and below them and steam coming from the corridor down from the cells. R’eyd placed Wyatt’s shoe under one of the electric bars of their cell causing a short and all of the bars zapped out of existence.

“We need to get to the deck above us.” Wyatt could only nod as R’eyd turned to leave the cell. Wyatt pushed ahead of the doc to take point so that he could fight off any ravagers they saw along the way.

One of the skinnier ravagers was running towards them when they stepped into the hall, and Wyatt quickly dispatched the assailant. He could hear more yelling the farther they went down the corridor.

“Hurry,” R’eyd prompted. Wyatt cursed as his socked feet stepped in something gooey, but kept running nonetheless. At the end of the hall was a Jeffries tube, so Wyatt had R’eyd go first up the ladder. He didn’t want the doc to slip on whatever Wyatt had stepped in.

At the next level the two men continued running straight forward, running into no one else until they reached their destination: the cargo hold.

There were three ravagers in the cargo hold, one armed with a phaser rifle and the other two unknown. Wyatt pulled R’eyd behind the first large crate and peered at the closest guard.

“We must defeat them and remove them from the room before Suzoh can transport us home,” R’eyd whispered. Wyatt sighed. ‘We’ in this case meant a lone weaponless, shoeless, Wyatt. The things he did for the doc…

The closest guard was walking towards them, so Wyatt did what any trained Starfleet security officer would do. He jumped out and tackled the woman to the ground.

She was stronger than she looked, but she was only armed with a dagger. Wyatt was able to quickly wrest the thing from her grip and cut her down her side. It was an intentionally nonlethal blow, but now Wyatt was the one holding the weapon and his opponent was injured. Unfortunately, this also meant that the other two guards had seen Wyatt fighting their compatriot and were therefore charging him.

The Klingon with the phaser rifle was apparently not very intelligent as she also charged him. Wyatt jumped out of the way at the last second as the Klingon and the other woman collided, knocking heads so that the injured guard was knocked out cold. The Klingon was dazed and had dropped her rifle. R’eyd took that moment to grab the rifle and readjust its setting. Wyatt was grappling with the final guard, an Orion man, but he was not so distracted that he missed the sound of the phaser rifle discharging.

“Down!” The doc yelled, and Wyatt complied. The phaser blast hit the Orion squarely in the chest and he toppled backward, unconscious.

“You move the injured woman, I’ll lift the others.” Wyatt wasn’t one to question the usefulness of Vulcan strength, so he did as he was told and carried the injured guard into the hall. When he turned around, R’eyd was carrying the Orion on his shoulders like a sack of flour. Wyatt moved aside so that R’eyd could pass, but also so that he could be nearer the door controls. Those phaser blasts would have attracted other ravagers, no doubt, and Wyatt intended to close the door as soon as R’eyd was finished moving the Klingon into the hall.

Wyatt did so and thought he saw a flash of pride in the doc’s eyes.

“Quickly, Wyatt, we must signal our wives.”

“What?” Wyatt could hardly believe what he was hearing. Really, this was the final part of their escape plan? To make a call and hope they were heard?

“I will help you, but we must be fast. They will only be able to have their shields down for a moment, of course,” R’eyd explained. Wyatt appreciated the doc using Starfleet procedure he knew to bring him back on track.

The two officers joined hands and Wyatt felt the Vulcan telepathy wash through him. He could now sense Jen though he hadn’t been able to before. He and R’eyd called out with their minds to their respective wives and were met with a wall of understanding. Immediately, Wyatt saw the shimmer of the transporter. Oddly, he also saw that shimmer on all of the surrounding cargo.

“How—“

…

“— did they transport all that at once?” Wyatt finished as they landed on the main transporter pad. The crates were nowhere to be seen, but Wyatt assumed they were in the hold.

“Come, Wyatt, there is no time,” R’eyd said, ignoring his question for the moment. “We must make haste to the bridge.” The two officers sprinted to the nearest turbo lift and waited the excruciating few seconds before the doors released them. Finally, they were reunited.

“Wyatt, R’eyd, take a seat,” Sue greeted them. She gestured to the auxiliary chairs next to hers and Crystal’s. Wyatt was relieved not to have to resume his station just yet. He had, after all, been through quite an ordeal.

Wyatt felt a wash of warmth come over him and his whole world stopped as he looked straight ahead. His wife was even more beautiful than he had remembered. The angle afforded by his small seat was not one to be envied, but it was enough to see Jen’s face from the side. Her brows were furrowed in concentration as she performed complex battle maneuvers against the ravager ship. She hadn’t put on any makeup that shift, and Wyatt was secretly glad for it. She looked the way she did in their quarters when she’d had a long shift. When she looked like that at home, Wyatt could always make her feel better with a cup of tea and some sweet words. Her hair was up in a twist, but every time she jerked her head a little more of it fell out and onto her shoulders. In a word, Jen was radiant.

_Your thoughts are sweet, Romeo, but distracting_ , she told him through their bond.

_Sorry, love, but its hard to quiet them down when you’re the most gorgeous thing I’ve seen in a week_. He saw her smirk at that before shooting him a wink that made his heart stop.

_Now don’t insult R’eyd like that, the captain will give you a reprimand._ Wyatt couldn’t help the grin that formed on his features. She was exactly what he remembered, exactly what she had always been with him: perfect.

“Signal the vessel,” Sue ordered. Wyatt had been so distracted by Jen that he hadn’t noticed the battle ending.

“Hailing frequencies open, Captain,” Mattemos answered. Wyatt smiled again, lightly this time, at the success of his second. He didn’t get to see Matt work often as he was his bridge replacement, but he was doing a bang up job.

“Alright, alright, you’ve got me, no need to gloat,” Yondu drawled. There were pieces of his ship strewn all about and he had a large blue cut on his forehead.

“You have been defeated,” Sue said anyway, probably just to piss the guy off. “You now have a choice to make. You can surrender your vessel in one of two ways: turn off your engines and let us tractor you back to Federation space, or be brought with your crew into our brig and we will tractor your vessel anyway.”

“You drive a hard bargain, missy,” Yondu allowed. Sue showed nothing on her face. After a moment, the other captain sighed. “Might as well go with option number one, I s’pose. Kraglin! All stop!”

“Answering all stop, Cap’n,” the ravager navigator said.

“Well,” Yondu looked directly at them then, “I guess the best cap’n won after all. You’re one hell of a fighter, girlie.”

“Thank you,” Sue said and, like a total badass, immediately hung up.

“Somebody call my brother,” she said dismissively, turning toward her husband with a look so full of love it knocked the air out of Wyatt’s lungs. “Ben you’re in charge.”

“Oh no, Suzie, you ain’t leavin’ me up here,” Ben countered. It was insubordinate enough to make Sue turn and look at her pilot.

“Excuse me?”

“We just got Stretch back and you think I’m just gonna sit up here twiddling my thumbs for the day and a half it’ll take to get back to Ka? Nope, I’m coming with ya.” Wyatt was in shock. Ben never talked to Sue like that on the bridge, that was reserved for game nights and holidays.

Still, he was more surprised when Sue softened. “You’re right, Ben, I’m sorry.”

“Aw, ain’t nothin’,” the Gorn replied.

“Crystal, you have the bridge,” the captain corrected herself. “If you need any of us, you know where we’ll be.”

——

Johnny awoke to frantic knocking on his door. He had a bit of a situation going on, so he put on a robe before answering it. He was confused to find nothing out in the hallway before realizing that the knocking wasn’t coming from the hallway, but rather the door of the through way to Peter’s room. When he opened their shared door, he was faced with a truly breathtaking sight. Peter was standing less than a foot away from him wearing nothing but boxers. He had the most powerful bedhead Johnny had ever seen and a massive grin that made Johnny go weak in the knees.

“Great news,” Peter said, pushing past Johnny and into his guest room. He turned when he reached the opposite side by the dresser to face Johnny again, his grin having gotten inexplicably bigger. “The _Fantastic_ called. They’ll be here tomorrow at noon.”

Johnny had no words. He simply stood there for a full ten seconds looking like a tarboola fish and staring at Peter’s face. Finally, his brain caught up with his heart and he was able to exclaim.

“Aw _fuck_ yeah!” He rushed forward and pulled Peter into a crushing hug. Johnny was vaguely surprised to find Peter hugging him back even tighter, but those thoughts were buried under the running line of _we’re going home we’re going home we’re going home_.

“We’re going home!” Johnny yelled out loud. Peter let out a boisterous laugh in response and pulled back to put his hands on Johnny’s hips. Before Johnny knew what was happening, he was being lifted and twirled in the air.

Johnny had already felt like he was flying, knowing that his family was safe and that he’d see them soon, but now he was _really_ flying.

And he loved it.

When Peter set him down, Johnny was breathless. Peter, however, was able to jump away and do a full backflip. Johnny laughed again when Peter came up smiling.

“God, I can’t wait to call my aunt, she must be worried sick! Not to mention MJ!” Johnny felt a crease develop in his brow at Peter’s exclamation, but he kept quiet. “The last time I was radio silent for this long, she wouldn’t kiss me for days!”

Oh.

Peter had a girlfriend.

Johnny felt a sour center develop within the cheerful lollipop of his stomach. He was still overjoyed at the prospect of seeing Sue soon, but he couldn’t ignore the fact that his newfound dream of making out with Peter had just been kicked in the balls.

The melancholy Trill was saved by another frantic knock, this time coming from the door to the hallway.

Peter opened it, still grinning as Johnny moved to follow him, to find their hosts outside wringing their hands. Apparently at Peter’s state of undress, the president attempted to recuse herself.

“Oh dear, please pardon us,” Mart Con said, covering her and her husband’s eyes. “We heard yelling and were concerned. We will leave you to your personal activities.” Johnny was mortified. Peter just cocked his head in mild confusion and kept his wide smile in place.

“We have great news!” Peter provided, completely ignoring the president’s uncomfortable stance. “I’ve just received word from our ship, Madam President. They will be here tomorrow to pick us up.”

“That is wonderful,” Dr Con replied, removing his wife’s hands from his face. “We know how anxious you have been to return to your people since you finished your work. Still, we will be sad to see you go. Would you care to honor us with another state dinner tonight for a proper send off? We would like to show you our gratitude in our traditional way.”

“Of course,” Johnny said quickly. He wanted to get a shirt on Peter sooner rather than later if only to spare poor Mart the shame. “We would be honored to dine with you and the other leaders once more.”

“Excellent,” Mart said. She took her hand off of her eyes and looked Johnny directly in the eye. “We will leave you now to your personal business. You are of course still free to use your remaining time in our home in whatever way you wish.”

“Thank you, Madam President,” he and Peter replied at the same time. Johnny felt his cheeks flush again as they all bowed to each other and Peter closed his door.

Peter let out a long breath and leaned back against the door. Johnny tried very hard not to ogle him now that he knew he was taken. The Vulcan had such a profound look of contentment on his face that Johnny couldn’t begrudge him. They both had every right to be excited to be headed home, though their reasons were different.

“I guess we’ll have to break out those godawful suits again, eh Torchy?”

Johnny grinned at his companion.

“Oh please, we looked great in those things. Well, I looked great at least. You on the other hand…” he raised an eyebrow at his friend and smiled again as Peter laughed.

“Hey, I’ve been told that my ass won’t quit on many occasions. I know a few people that would kill to look like me.” Peter struck a pose he’d seen Johnny take a few times, making Johnny chuckle.

“Or maybe they looked like they wanted to kill you,” he shot back. Peter just smiled and punched him lightly on the arm.

“That’s right, how could I have been so mistaken?” He backed towards his room and hooked a thumb over his shoulder. “I guess we’d better get packing, huh?”

“That we must,” Johnny smiled back. He leaned back on his dresser and crossed his arms. “I’ll take the soaps, you nab the towels.”

Peter barked out a laugh.

“Fine, but only if you eat my appetizers. I don’t think I can handle another round of whatever the hell those blue things were last time.”

“Deal.” Johnny kept smiling at his friend as the door closed. He heard another small ‘whoop’ as it clicked.

He may have been in the gutter romantically, but at least platonically he was all set. He couldn’t wait to see his family again. Johnny decided right there that he was going to give R’eyd a hug. He didn’t care if the guy didn’t like it, it was Johnny’s right after he’d left them alone on this strange world for so long.

...

Johnny could only take so long packing up, he really only had two outfits with him after all, so when he’d put his souvenirs into his new Ka style bag, he decided to take a walk. He hadn’t seen nearly as much of this planet as he’d wanted to. They had obviously been confined to their immediate area of Capital City and the surrounding countryside, long distance travel being difficult on a world with so many various ragged terrains. Still, Johnny managed to find an entire arboretum that he hadn’t explored. He had no idea where Peter was. Despite his newfound feelings, he thought that his future self would appreciate a day without his roommate.

Before long it was time for dinner, so Johnny had headed back to his room to change out of his suit. He figured he’d hear Peter rummaging around in his own room through the wall, and he was right. When the rummaging stopped, Johnny walked out to meet Peter in the hallway. They opened their doors at the same time.

Just as before, Johnny was blown away by Peter in a suit.

“Hey, Hot Stuff,” Peter greeted him, looking mildly impressed. Johnny had to lose his gaze or he would have given his feelings away.

“I knew it, you’re hopeless,” Johnny replied, stepping forward.

“What?” Peter looked a little hurt at Johnny’s implication.

“Shut up, let me fix this.” Johnny told himself that any friend would do this, any friend would fix his buddy’s tie and straighten his mess of hair. “You looked good, but now you’ll look…” Johnny stepped back and had to take a deep breath at what he saw “perfect.”

By the time he looked up at Peter again, his friend’s expression was a small but appreciative smile.

“Perfect, huh?” Peter said, smirking.

“Well,” Johnny allowed, “close enough.”

Peter snorted and they walked down the hall together towards the formal dining room. They’d eaten there for about half of the meals they’d taken while on the planet. Before they ate on that first night, Peter had had to scan everything in the Con’s kitchen to see what would be poisonous to them. Since then, they’d each developed a few favorite foods that they would take to the lab for lunches and late dinners as they completed their work. The first night on Ka they had a pretty boring time, only barely managing to chat up the local authorities through their hatred for each other. Since the development of their friendship, Johnny could tell that they had become much better dinner companions.

“This had better be an improvement over the last dinner,” Peter muttered as they reached the dining room. There were quite a few dignitaries there already mingling so he had to be subtle with his complaints.

“Well we have made a few friends since then,” Johnny provided, hoping to quell Peter’s possible frustrations before they arose.

“Yeah, with the local kids,” Peter said with an eye roll and a smirk. “I don’t know about you, but I didn’t really gel with the leaders of this free world last time around.”

“Ah, Joanie!” A short Ka said, approaching the two of them. Peter shot Johnny a look of mild surprise, making him blush.

“Johnny,” he corrected, “and you are Prime Minister Soycha, are you not?”

The prime minister hissed in appreciation at being recognized.

“You are good with names, sir,” Soycha offered.

“Some are easy to remember, mx,” Johnny replied. As the prime minister bent to offer them both a bow, Peter raised his eyebrows at his companion. Johnny rolled his eyes and shrugged before yanking Peter to bow in return.

“Have you met my companion, Peter Parker?”

“I have not had the chance. A pleasure, I’m sure.” They all bowed a second time.

“In my native tongue, my name is pronounced P’tr,” Peter explained, “but Vulcan is difficult for most species, so I offer an approximation.”

Johnny stared at him as Peter smirked with superiority. How had he not known this? They had known each other fairly well for about a week but they had been living together almost a month.

“Ah, I believe your translators have made the same approximations from our language to yours,” Soycha said. “Though we are all grateful for the technology. Language is often the most difficult barrier to overcome in understanding new peoples, is it not?”

“Too true,” Peter said.

Their conversations went on like that for quite some time from Ka to Ka. The few Ka they had each met when they first arrived clearly remembered their alien faces and the two officers were pretty successful in recalling the different Ka they came across. The longer they were around Ka, the easier it became to recognize the smaller differences between different faces.

The most blatant difference from their last state dinner was in the fact that both officers made the rounds together. Being friends now meant that Johnny didn’t have to stumble through conversation with the more scientifically minded. He could simply allow Peter to take over the conservation and offer commentary on the side. Similarly, whenever their conversational adversaries turned to culture, Johnny took the reins and Peter added what he could about various Federation planets.

When President Con announced that dinner was ready, everyone took their seats at the labeled spots all down the table. Johnny and Peter were next to each other, as a nearby Con ambassador kindly read to them, which Johnny thanked the great bird for. As much as he had been wary of spending more time with Peter once he found out about his girlfriend, he did not want to be set adrift in a sea of alien strangers after using Peter as a safety net for an hour. He was pretty sure it wouldn't go well.

“Before we eat, we shall thank the Goddess for all that She has provided,” President Con began. All of the Ka at the table immediately bowed their heads. Con hissed something out that Johnny didn’t understand and that their translator couldn’t help with, and then spread her hands. Everyone at the table began eating their appetizers. Johnny casually stole bites off of Peter’s plate to cover for his not eating the blobby blue fruits. Peter cut them up so that he would appear to be eating.

Next to Peter sat their friend from earlier in the evening, Soycha. Next to Johnny was a being who introduced herself as Jayna, ambassador from [weird hissing]. Across from them were a minister of foreign affairs, Horda, and zir husband Konyak. Johnny was starting to get a headache and the night had barely started.

They ate their first course and Johnny answered a lot of questions about what different Federation cultures did to amuse themselves. He carefully tailored his responses on the more removed cultures so that he wouldn’t offend the Ka, but included that those peoples were very different from Ka in case his politic descriptions were ever disputed.

A little while into the third course of four, their immediate dining companions found out that Peter was a man of two cultures and were endlessly fascinated at the genetic ramifications of that fact. Johnny sort of tuned them out and focused on sneaking something bright red and moving onto Peter’s plate.

“My what?” Peter asked Soycha suddenly. From what Johnny could see of his turned face, he looked confused but suspicious.

“Johnny, your [string of hissing noises],” Soycha repeated themself.

“I must ask for your forgiveness,” Johnny cut in. “Our translator is not working for that last term. Could you describe it?”

“Forgiveness is given but not necessary,” Soycha provided the automatic response. “[string of hissing noises] is like ah, how to describe…”

“It is the term used in polite company for people in your position,” Horda explained. At their continued looks of bafflement, zir husband supplied more.

“[string of hissing noises] is the word for two men who are friends and work together but also sleep together.”

Horda nodded zir assent. “It is so long a phrase, we invented a word for the situation.”

Johnny knew two things in that moment. One, his face was bright red. Two, the Ka had no idea what they had just said or how wrong they were. He stayed silent in his shock, but Peter recovered faster than him and offered a reply.

“Oh, we’re not actually… that,” Peter said, not unkindly but blushing nonetheless. “We’re friends and coworkers, but we don’t do the last part. Just friends.”

The couple across from them exchanged looks.

“Perhaps that was not clear, and I do apologize if I overstep,” Soycha cut in. “By ’sleep together,’ the honorable minister’s spouse meant that you have sex.”

“With each other,” Konyak added helpfully.

It was Johnny’s turn to clarify.

“In this phrasing our cultures do not differ, our translator and my companion took your meaning perfectly,” he began in their overly formal speech pattern to soften the blow. “However, his point stands. We do not sleep together.”

Peter looked mortified as the Ka apologized profusely. Johnny assured them that they were not offended as carefully as he could, but apparently mischaracterizing a relationship was quite offensive and this took up more of their dinner than Johnny would have thought possible. After roughly forty-five minutes of assuring their dinner companions that he and Peter were in no way romantically or sexually linked, Peter had only slunk further down in his chair and Johnny felt like he was going to throw up.

“We will now thank the Goddess again for Her meal,” President Con announced. Everyone stopped what they were talking about to do the same prayer as before. “And I thank our dignitaries for honoring us with their presence again. Truly we are glad to have been able to make peaceful and meaningful contact with the United Federation of Planets and hope that they will visit us again when they can.”

Everyone clapped and began to stand to file out of the dining room. Johnny turned to Peter, hoping to make a quick joke about the misunderstanding, but his chair was empty.

Johnny recused himself and went towards the back doors of the hall. Peter was probably headed back to their rooms. It was getting late and he clearly wanted to escape that horribly awkward situation. Johnny couldn’t blame him, he was doing the same thing. Still, he wanted to make sure Peter had gotten the message that Johnny thought the whole conversation was funny instead of concerning. He didn’t want Peter thinking he was some kind of asshole who hit on people with significant others.

But, when he reached the end of the hall, he saw Peter’s door close. How had he gotten down there so fast?

_Oh right, he’s Vulcan_.

Johnny mopily made his way into his own room and took off his shoes and tie before falling into bed. It was just his luck that the day after he fell in love would be the day he was essentially publicly rejected. Peter was so horrified by the idea of them fucking that he couldn’t even say goodnight. What the hell were they gonna do when they got back on board the ship?


	10. We're Going Home

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> R'eyd asks Sue a question and Peter and Johnny come home to the ship.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We did it! Finally, I've go this whole damn thing posted! It took a bit, but I hope you all thought it was worth the wait. And just in time for Christmas! I hope you enjoy!

The senior crew was celebrating the return of R’eyd and Wyatt, along with most of the lower ranks Sue was fairly certain. Jen was the one to suggest that they get drunk, and Ben quickly backed her up. This was always quite the endeavor as what got Ben, Jen, and R’eyd drunk were all very different things than what got Sue and Wyatt drunk. Thankfully, though, they lived in the age of replicators and Sue had Captain’s Privilege. For hours, the five of them celebrated the husbands’ return while eating chocolate, something distilled and bitter from Gorn, and regular old alcohol. They sobered a little before all of Sue’s friends headed out, and then it was just her and R’eyd.

“Next time you go missing, Stretcho,” Ben warned, “make sure you take me with ya. I trust Wingfoot to keep you outta trouble in most cases, but he pales in comparison to the ever-lovin’ blue eyed thing you see before ya.”

“I’ll… try my best, Ben.” R’eyd replied diplomatically. Sue thought she could see a slight smile trying to form on her husband’s face.

“Ah, come here,” Ben exclaimed suddenly, grabbing R’eyd and pulling him into a strong hug. Ben was a bit of a weepy drunk.

“That’ll be enough, Lt Gariim,” Sue said with enough authority in her voice to get their friend to leave. Ben shot her an embarrassed glance and then gave her a hug, too. He walked out of their quarters and Sue was made quickly aware of the fact that they were alone by R’eyd grabbing her around the waist and pulling her in.

“I did not appreciate being away from you so long, _ashayam_ ,” he muttered into her hair. She pulled him in even closer.

“I missed you, too, darling.” They held each other until they both felt safe again. It took longer than it ever had before.

“Tell me,” Sue said, pulling away enough to see R’eyd’s face but keeping him close enough that she could still feel his warmth, “were you able to determine why our marriage bond’s communication failed over the course of your imprisonment?”

R’eyd sighed and moved to sit down at the end of their bed.

“As close as I could understand from our rodent assistant, the ravager ship had some sort of telepathic cloaking device.” Sue frowned at that but did not interrupt. “We know that Vulcan and Betazoid telepathy both work off of our species’ ability to understand the signals given off by the electrical impulses of thought. I had not previously thought it possible for those signals to be interrupted except by excessive distance. This will require further research when Lt Parker returns.”

Sue placed a hand on her husband’s and brought his gaze into contact with her own.

“That is most disturbing. I’d like to get your mind off of the situation.”

There was mirth in R’eyd’s eyes. “What did you have in mind?”

“Well,” Sue replied coyly, “I haven’t properly welcomed my husband home from his harrowing mission. I have a few ideas I think you’ll like rattling around in my brain.” He read her thoughts, and she could feel that he was happy with all of the possibilities.

“Then by all means, pick your favorite and begin.” Sue did.

…

In the morning, Sue awoke feeling the happiest she had been in weeks. She finally had her husband back, how could anything make this better?

“Good morning, _ashayam_ ,” R’eyd rumbled. She could feel the sound as it reverberated in his chest where her head was lying.

“Good morning to you too, my darling, wonderful, magnificent husband.” Sue couldn’t help the grin that pulled across her features. She could feel love from her husband coming through their bond. Then, it turned to something more nervous. She knew that he knew that she could sense his wariness, so she waited for R’eyd to speak first.

“You are aware that my next cycle approaches,” R’eyd stated rather clinically. Sue stared at him in surprise. That is not anywhere near what she thought he was going to say.

“Yes, in six months Federation time,” Sue confirmed. R’eyd was staring directly up at the ceiling. She raised herself up so that he would have to look at her.

“I think it would be a good time to attempt that endeavor we discussed a few weeks ago,” R’eyd continued stoically.

Sue sat up in shock. He followed her, concern showing on his features as much as it could with his Vulcan training. Now? After she’d been asking for years, now he was ready to try?

“What brought this on?” Sue asked carefully. She tried her best to keep judgement out of her tone, but wasn’t sure if she succeeded.

“I…” R’eyd folded his hands in his meditative position and looked down at them. Then, he looked back up at Sue’s face with an entirely earnest expression.

“I love you, Sozoh Storrm. You have asked before if there is medically safe way for us to have children together, a way that will result in a viable fetus so that we do not have to undergo the psychological trauma of seemingly endless miscarriages. You have asked this of me many times, and every time I have increased my efforts to make this dream come true for you. For both of us. There is now much precedent of Vulcan hybrid pregnancy, but none for a Vulcan with a Trill. This is why it has taken so long for me to find enough medical confidence to make this happen for us.

“Just before I was kidnapped, I discovered a new technique which will allow us to monitor the fetus more closely than ever before. I had been working myself up to ask you if you approved before I was taken. I also wanted to ask your brother to help me build a new machine for this purpose, but I needed to talk to you first. I… I have wanted to have children with you since the day we became committed and serious. Only now am I confident enough to tell you that it can be done.”

He ended his speech by looking up into Sue’s eyes, finding them full of tears. He looked concerned, before looking down at her lips and finding a smile there. She had thought that she was the happiest she could ever be when she woke up that morning. She was wrong. _This_ was the greatest moment of her life so far.

Sue tackled her husband to the bed in a massive hug and laughed loudly.

“Of course I’m ready, too! We’ll ask Johnny as soon as we get to Ka to pick him up!” R’eyd was smiling lightly up at her. She couldn’t help but kiss him all over his beautiful face.

“Captain to the helm,” she called, giving the breathless R’eyd a moment to collect himself.

“Tompxin here, Captain.”

“Present course and speed?”

“Top impulse as we tow to Ka, ma’am.” Sue cursed under her breath. They couldn’t safely tow above impulse unless both vessels were moving at the same speed.

“Maintain best speed possible to Ka,” she bit out.

“Yes, ma’am.”

Sue sighed and looked back down at her husband laying under her. “I suppose since I’ve waited years, I can handle a few more hours. Still, that doesn’t mean we have to wait until your _time_ to get the basics going, does it?”

“No,” R’eyd said with another small smile, “it does not.” He was clearly going to need to meditate for a full day at this point to get his emotional expression under control.

“Then let’s get started.”

…

“Coordinates set for beam up, Captain,” Ensign Th’draqq reported as Sue entered the room.

“I think I’d like to beam down first, is that alright?” Th’draqq frowned and punched a few things into his board, then looked back up at her with a grin.

“Not at all, ma’am. Coordinates set for beam _down_. The cargo has already been sent to where their government asked.”

Sue smiled and took her place on the transporter pad. She had so much to tell Johnny and she was sure he had a lot to tell her. She had almost forgotten about the reports of success of her plan to set up her brother with Lieutenant Commander Parker in all of the chaos of the last week and a half. And, Johnny had no idea of anything that had transpired while she was gone. They were going to have a very long lunch.

“Energize.”

Sue rematerialized in the same hall she remembered from when the team had first beamed down. The same oddly discordant architecture was just as beautiful as it had been the first time. Except, this time, her brother was there waiting for her.

“Sue!” Johnny exclaimed. Much to her surprise, he flung himself forward for a big hug. She laughed as she hugged him back, giving him a moment before pushing him away.

“I missed you too, little brother.” Johnny didn’t even make a face at the mention of their age difference.

Parker was there, too, standing awkwardly off to the side with two Ka as he watched the siblings reunite.

“Madam President,” Sue greeted with a bow.

“Captain,” President Con replied with a matching bow. “And my husband Curt.”

“I am honored,” Sue said and bowed again. “I don’t know how to thank you for keeping my officers on after the end of their work repairing your systems.”

“It was the least we could do as you were off saving our planet. I thank you for the report your people sent this morning detailing your success and for the return of our stolen resources.”

“You will always have a friend in the Federation, Madam President,” Sue replied. “We will keep you apprised of the legal case against your tormentors.”

“And I must thank you again for taking them with you,” Mart said quickly. “We are far from equipped to deal with their punishment properly.”

“Of course, Madam,” Sue said. Then, she turned to look at Parker and Johnny in turn. “You boys ready to go?” They both nodded.

“Thank you again for your hospitality,” Parker shot out. He looked genuinely sad to be leaving the planet. “I’ll try my best to maintain correspondence, Dr Con.”

The president’s husband nodded, then the three Starfleet officers moved into position. Sue signaled the ship, and there they were in the transporter room again.

“Hey, Bobby,” Johnny and Parker called at the same time. Sue thought she saw the tops of each man’s ears flush, but her mind may have been playing tricks on her.

“Hey, guys!” Ensign Th’draqq answered. “You are not gonna believe all the crazy stuff that happened while you were gone.”

Johnny raised his eyebrows and turned to Sue. She tried to school her expression, but she must have let something through because he sobered immediately.

“Come on, Johnny, I’m off duty. Let’s go to my quarters.” Sue didn’t wait for a reply before she turned and left the transporter room. Johnny was going to want to sit down when he heard this, and Sue wanted privacy.

She heard Parker and the ensign continue their conversation, saying something about calling his aunt, as she marched her way to the turbo lift and Johnny hurried to catch up. When the turbo lift doors closed and Sue had called out the right deck, Johnny turned to her with concern.

“What the hell happened while you were gone, Sue? I know you wouldn’t leave us there unless something completely ridic happened, so don’t try and duck out of this.”

Sue sighed and grabbed her brother’s hand for stability.

“R’eyd and Wyatt were kidnapped.”

_“What?”_

Sue led the way down the hall, still holding Johnny’s hand as he sputtered incredulously. When they reached her quarters, they sat down together in her living room.

“Start from the beginning, Sue, please,” Johnny implored. Sue took a deep breath and did exactly that. She told him about the attack she stopped as soon as she reappeared on the ship, the mystery weapon R’eyd tried to warn her about before he was taken, and the speed of the ship as it took him away from her. She told Johnny about the days on end where all she could do was wait for her crew to come up with something viable while she blamed herself for her husband’s kidnapping. The wonderful day when she got him back.

Then, it was Johnny’s turn. He told her that he and Parker finished their assignment long before Sue had come back to pick them up and how they had essentially just wandered around the planet for days having a grand old time. He was clearly trying to downplay the fun he’d had now that he knew what the rest of the crew had gone through. She could also tell that there was a tone of something more that colored his voice when he talked about Peter, but that that tone was also melancholy so she didn’t push him.

“There’s something else, Johnny, something wonderful,” Sue said at last, happy to end on a positive note after all of her upsetting news. “R’eyd and I are going to try to get pregnant.”

“Sue!” Johnny exclaimed, throwing his arms around her. “That’s absolutely radical! Wait, but why are you telling me now when you’re not even pregnant yet?” Sue was about to tell him when R’eyd walked in. She hadn’t realized how late it was, R’eyd’s shift was over.

“R’eyd!” Johnny called. A grin exploded over his features as he rushed forward to bind his brother in law in a hug. Sue couldn’t help but grin along. R’eyd was always a little more ready to allow physical contact from Johnny and Ben than he was for nearly anyone else.

“Welcome back, Junedam,” R’eyd greeted. “I trust your absence was not as eventful as mine.”

“Dude, I don’t think I’ll ever have a week as eventful as the one you just had. And to try to have kids right after! What’s the deal with that?”

Sue almost thought she saw a smile on her husband’s face as she stood to join them.

“I didn’t tell him why he needed to know, I just told him that we were going to try,” Sue explained.

“Well,” R’eyd said slowly, “there’s a machine I’ll need to build for the baby’s safety, and I’d love to have your help, Johnny.”

Johnny stood there for a moment with his mouth hanging open before he pulled them both into a hug.

“Of course I’ll help!”

——-

_Why_ was this _bothering_ him?

_Why was this bothering him?_

It was a stupid misunderstanding from a week ago by people who didn't understand Federation cultures. Johnny had done the right thing, too, Peter reasoned. They _weren't_ together. They didn't feel that way about each other, they were friends.

So why was this bothering him?

_Could be because he's hot_ , said a voice in Peter's brain that sounded suspiciously like MJ.

Which, yes, he was, but Johnny was also a doofus. He knew how to do his job but when he wasn't, he was always gallivanting around and flirting and not taking things seriously. Johnny was the kind of person Peter needed as a friend. He helped Peter cut loose when he needed to. But as a partner? No, that would be a disaster.

Peter didn't want that.

He didn't. So--

"Why is this bothering you so much?" Harry asked. "It seemed like a classic diplomatic mission screw up to me. Why the stomach-in-knots?"

"I don't know!" Peter exclaimed, his head falling to the mess hall table with a thunk.

Gwen rolled her eyes at his antics. She refused to look at him, continuing to eat her salad as if Peter hadn't just exclaimed in the middle of a crowded dinner hall. He couldn't see her doing any of this, but he knew it was happening instinctively.

"Peter, I love you, but you're overreacting," she finally said, making Peter lift his head again. "Just... have a movie night or something. Do what normal roommates do. It's only awkward as long as you let it be."

“Yeah,” Harry added. “Just because some random Ka thought you were fuckbuddies doesn’t mean that has to be a _thing_ for you.”  
  
Peter glared at both of them before giving up and smiling halfheartedly. “You’re right, I’m being stupid.”

“Don’t be so hard on yourself,” Gwen reassured him, “you usually are.”

The rest of their dinner was spent talking about MJ and Liz and every little diagnostic whatever that Harry had dealt with while he was in charge of engineering. He had apparently told his wife all about it. Gwen and MJ were doing well despite the long distance and Peter was happy for them. Just because he used to date each of them didn’t mean he’d be mad now that they had each moved on. They seemed like they really loved each other, who was he to get in the way of that?

When they were done eating, Peter went back to his quarters. He had had the morning shift that day and Johnny had been holed up for at least sixteen hours working on his secret project. Peter was hoping to have a minute to himself before his next shift.

On his walk down to his quarters, he practiced what he’s going to say to Johnny about the Ka. He knew he didn’t _necessarily_ have to even address the issue, but he felt like he should emphasize to Johnny that he had no untoward expectations. It’s a good thing he practiced, because Johnny is there when he gets home.

“Hey, Pete!” His roommate called from the floor behind his bed. He appeared to find whatever he dropped and jumps up onto his feet to face Peter. “What’re you doing back so early? You usually take like two hours after the end of your shift.”

“I was having dinner with Harry and Gwen,” Peter replied. “Have to do paperwork the rest of the night, but at least I’m not trying to do it in the middle of bridge duty, huh?”

Johnny laughed lightly and Peter felt something important constrict in his chest.

“Hey, uh,” Peter started, deciding he might as well get this over with sooner rather than later. “I was just thinking about you actually.”  
  
“Should I be flattered or concerned?” Johnny said it with a smile and Peter instinctively matched it.

“Probably both, knowing me.” No, nope, bad, that could sound like flirting. “I was thinking about Ka and how fun it was hanging out with you there. I never would have expected it before that mission, but you aren’t as bad as I thought you were.”

“Again, not sure I’m flattered or concerned.” The engineer moved around his bed and towards Peter who was still standing awkwardly just barely inside the door. “What are you trying to say here?”

“Nothing,” Peter said quickly. His heart was speeding up and he wasn’t sure why. “Nothing, I just… You’re a good friend, Johnny. I hope we can stay that way.”

Johnny made a face at that and Peter couldn’t tell what emotion that expression was trying to show. He mostly looked like he was gonna barf.

“You’re not so bad yourself, Web Head,” his roommate finally said, the smile coming back to his face. “Once you get past the utter dorkiness, of course.”

“Hey, my dorkiness is my best feature!” It was a weak argument and he was pretty sure he’d made that joke to Johnny before, but it was enough to get him a light punch on the arm and a stronger smile than before.

“Hey,” Peter started. Now that he’d reestablished the parameters of their relationship, he figured he should take Gwen’s advice and suggest a nice platonic activity to bring it all together. “You wanna watch one of those old movies you have saved to the viewer? I can put off my paperwork for a little while.”

“Sure, why not.” Johnny rolled his eyes, still smiling, and moved to his bed. He told the computer to turn on the viewer and display his personal film library and it obliged. “ _Snowpiercer_ or _Hacksaw Ridge_?”

“Uh, neither,” Peter shot back. “I’m feeling kids stuff. How about _Spies in Disguise_?”

Johnny groaned. “That movie is so _dumb_.” Peter laughed.

“I mean we could always watch _Onward_.”

“I may have watched that last night.”

“What? When?”

“Uh, when I came back from extra shift and you were passed out on the floor.”

Peter grinned at his roommate. Johnny had put a blanket over his sleeping body when he’d found him like that. Johnny looked back at Peter for a moment before breaking their eye contact and falling back onto his bed.

“Ugh, fine! Computer, display movie _Spies in Disguise_ on my viewer.”

Peter could do this. He and Johnny would be just fine. All he had to do was ignore that weird feeling in his chest.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, folks, that's it. Now, I know what you're thinking- how could you end it there? You've added an entire set up for a sequel and Johnny and Peter aren't even together yet! What the hell was the point of reading that excessively long monstrosity you call a fan fiction?
> 
> and you're correct, I am ridiculous. but, I have the beginnings of a sequel ready! It's all plotted out and I'm basing it off of a Next Gen episode so it shouldn't take me too long to put together. I don't think I'll post that one until im like 75% done, though, so bear with me while I work this out.
> 
> Happy holidays! I hope this new year is better than the last one! (though I can't imagine much worse)

**Author's Note:**

> comments and kudos always welcome!


End file.
